SELECTIONS  FROM  TREITSCHKE'S 
LECTURES  ON  POLITICS 


SELECTIONS  FROM 

TREITSCHKE'S 

LECTURES  ON 

POLITICS 


TRANSLATED  BT 

ADAM  L.  GOWANS 


NEW  YORK 
FREDERICK  A.  STOKES  COMPANY 

PUBUSHZBJ 


TC 


REPLACING         >O  / 


IN  MEMORIAM 


PREFACE 

HEINRICH  VON  TREITSCHKE  was  born  in  1834  at 
Dresden,  the  son  of  a  Saxon  general  of  Bohemian 
origin.  From  1858  to  1863  he  lectured  on  history 
at  Leipzig;  from  1863  to  1866  he  was  professor  at 
Freiburg.  After  a  short  period  of  activity  at  Kiel,  he 
was  in  Heidelberg  till  1874,  when  he  went  to  Berlin, 
where  he  remained  till  his  death  in  1896. 

The  lectures  on  politics,  from  which  the  following 
selections  were  made,  were  delivered  at  Berlin  Uni- 
versity. Their  general  tenor  is  apparent  from  the 
extracts  here  given ;  their  great  popularity  in  Berlin 
and  their  tremendous  influence  on  German  thought  is 
vividly  described  in  "Germany  and  England,"  by  the 
late  Professor  Cramb.  His  description  might  fittingly 
be  supplemented  by  the  illuminating  passage  which 
concludes  Professor  Meyer's  brilliant  criticism  of 
Treitschke  in  his  "Deutsche  Literatur  des  Neunzehnten 
Jahrhundert " :  "But,  for  the  very  reason  that  his 
passions  did  carry  him  away,  he  can  never  be  accused 
of  dishonesty.  He  would  have  suffered  martyrdom  at 
any  moment  for  what  he  said.  His  listeners  felt  this. 
When,  after  the  first  few  minutes,  they  had  grown 
accustomed  to  the  strangely  vibrant  ring  of  his  voice, 

M14128O 


6  PEEFACE 

the  curiously  clipped  elocution,  with  the  deep  breaths 
of  that  broad  chest,  seemed  to  them  almost  the  only 
natural  way  of  speaking — so  greatly  did  it  captivate 
the  hearer.  Nor  was  it  otherwise  with  his  matter. 
Treitschke  was  always  convinced  that  no  reasonable 
and  honourable  man  could  think  otherwise  than  him- 
self, so  much  was  he  identified  with  his  convictions ; 
nor  did  his  own  changes  of  opinion  embarrass  him. 
Wherever  he  marched,  he  took  the  field  with  all  his 
forces,  armed,  eager  for  the  fray,  ready  to  conquer  or 
to  die ;  and  thus  he  set  a  splendid  example  in  an  age 
full  of  pessimism,  effeminacy  and  weariness.  His 
personality  was  a  factor  in  Germany's  development." 
I  might  only  add  that  I  have  thought  it  best,  in 
view  of  the  great  importance  of  so  many  of  Treitschke's 
opinions,  to  follow  the  original  as  closely  as  possible, 
and  to  prefer  a  somewhat  bald  literalness  to  a  more 
fluent  English  which  would  not  express  the  exact 
sense  of  the  German.  The  translation  is  made  from 
the  1899-1900  edition. 

A.  L.  G. 


CONTENTS 

BOOK   I.    THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE 

MM 

§    1.  THE  CONCEPTION  or  THE  STATE       ....  9 

§    2.  THE  AIM  or  TOE  STATE  •        •  21 

§    3.  THE  RELATION  OP  THE  STATE  TO  THE  MORAL  LAW  26 

§    4.  THE  RISE  AND  FALL  or  STATES     ....  30 

§    5.  GOVERNMENT  AND  GOVERNED 44 

BOOK   II.    Till'   SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE 
STA 

§     6.   COUNTRT   AND   PEOPLE 47 

§    7.  THE  FAMILY 56 

§    8.  RACES,  STOCKS,  NATIONS 58 

§    9.  CASTES,  ORDERS,  CLASSES 61 

§  10.  RZLIOION 66 

§  11.  THE  EDUCATION  or  THE  PEOPLE     ....  67 

§  12.  DOMESTIC  ECONOMY 69 

BOOK   IIL    THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE 

§  13.  THE  FORMS  OF  THE  STATE 72 

§  14.  THE  THEOCRACY 73 

§  15.  THE  MONARCHY 76 

§  16.  THE  OLDER  FORMS  or  THE  MONARCHY    ...  83 

§  17.  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  MONARCHY     ....  86 

§  18.  TYRANNY  AKD  C^ESARISM 89 


8  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

§  19.  THE  ARISTOCRATIC  REPUBLIC  .....  90 

§  20.  THE  DEMOCRATIC  REPUBLIC     .....  92 

§  21.  CONFEDERACY  or  STATES  AND  FEDERAL  STATE        -  94 

§  22.  THE  EMPIRE    ........  96 


BOOK   IV.     THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF  THE   STATE 

§  23.  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  ARMY           ...  99 

§  24.  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  LAW  ....  109 

§  25.  THE  FINANCES  OF  THE  STATE  .....  113 

§  26.  ADMINISTRATION  IN  THE  NARROWER  SENSE     -        -  117 

BOOK  V.    THE   STATE   IN   INTERNATIONAL 
INTERCOURSE 

§  27.  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMPANY  OF  STATES     -        -        -     120 
§  28.  INTERNATIONAL  LAW  AND  INTERCOURSE  -        -        -123 


POLITICS 
BOOK  I.    THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE 

§1.   The  Conception  of  the  State. 

TIIK  State  is  the  people  legally  united  as  an  independent 
power.  By  "  people  "  we  understand,  briefly,  a  plural 
number  of  families  permanently  living  together.  When 
this  is  recognized,  it  follows,  that  the  State  dates  from 
the  very  beginning  and  is  necessary,  that  it  has  existed 
as  long  as  history  and  is  as  essential  to  humanity  as 
language. . . 


. . .  The  State  is  power  for  this  reason  only,  that  it 
may  maintain  itself  alongside  of  other  equally  indepen- 
dent powers.  War  and  the  administration  of  justice  are 
the  first  tasks  of  even  the  rudest  barbaric  State.  But 
these  tasks  are  only  conceivable  in  a  plurality  of  States 
permanently  existing  alongside  of  one  another.  Hence 
the  idea  of  a  World-State  is  odious ;  the  ideal  of  one 
State  containing  all  mankind  is  no  ideal  at  all.  The 


10  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE        [BK.  i 

whole  content  of  civilization  cannot  be  realized  in  a 
single  State  '/in  no  single  people  can  the  virtues  of  the 
aristocracy  and  the  democracy  be  found  combined.  All 
peoples,  just  like  individual  men,  are  one-sided,  but  in 
the  very  fulness  of  this  one-sidedness  the  richness  of 
the  human  race  is  seen.  The  rays  of  the  divine  light 
only  appear  in  individual  nations  infinitely  broken; 
each  one  exhibits  a  different  picture  and  a  different 
conception  of  the  divinity/  Every  people  has  therefore 
the  right  to  believe  that  certain  powers  of  the  divine 
reason  display  themselves  in  it  at  their  highest.  /With- 
out overrating  itself  a  people  does  not  arrive  at  know- 
ledge of  itself  at  all.  The  Germans  are  always  in 
danger  of  losing  their  nationality,  because  they  have 
too  little  of  this  solid  pride.  The  average  German  has 
very  little  political  pride/tut  among  us  even  Philistines 
are  wont  to  have  the  pride  of  culture  in  the  freedom 
and  universality  of  the  German  spirit;  and  that  is 
fortunate,  for  such  a  feeling  is  necessary,  in  order 
that  a  people  may  preserve  and  maintain  itself. 


. . .  Yet  how  tragic  is  the  fate  of  Spain,  which  dis- 
covered the  New  World  and  has  preserved  for  itself 
to-day  in  a  direct  way  nothing  whatever  of  that  great 
achievement  of  civilization !  The  Spanish  have  only 
the  one  advantage  still  left,  that  so  many  millions  of 


§1]      THE  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  STATE        11 

Spanish-speaking  people  live  across  the  sea.  Other 
nations  have  come  to  wrest  from  the  Iberian  nations 
the  fruits  of  their  labour ;  first  Holland  and  then  the 
English.  -History  wears  thoroughly  masculine  features; 
it  is  not  for  sentimental  natures  or  for  women.  Only 
brave  nations  have  a  secure  existence,  a  future,  a 
development;  weak  and  cowardly  nations  go  to  the 
wall,  and  rightly  so.  In  this  everlasting  for  and 
against  of  different  States  lies  the  beauty  of  history ;  to 
wish  to  abolish  this  rivalry  is  simply  unreason/  Man- 
kind has  perceived  this  in  all  ages.  The  world-empire 
of  Alexander  the  Great  was  followed  in  natural  reaction 
by  the  founding  of  the  empires  of  the  Diadochi  and  the 
lenized  nations  of  the  East.  The  huge  one-sided- 
ness  of  national  thought  in  our  century  among  most 
peoples  and  little  peoples  is  nothing  more  than  the 
natural  reaction  against  the  Napoleonic  world-empire. 
'The  unsuccessful  attempt  to  transform  the  many- 
sidedness  of  European  life  into  the  barren  uniformity 
of  a  world-empire  has  had  the  natural  consequence, 
that  national  thought  makes  itself  so  exclusively  pro- 
minent to-day;  world-citizenship  has  retired  too  far 
into  the  background. 

If  we  consider  further  our  definition :  "  The  State  is 
the  people  legally  united  as  an  independent  power,"  we 


12  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

may  express  it  more  shortly  thus :  "  The  State  is  the 
public  power  of  offence  and  defence.'^  The  State  is  in 
the  first  instance  power,  that  it  may  maintain  itself ; 
it  is  not  the  totality  of  the  people  itself,  as  Hegel 
assumed  in  his  deification  of  the  State — the  people  is 
not  altogether  amalgamated  with  it ;  but  ^ibhe  State 
protects  and  embraces  the  life  of  the  people,  regulating 
it  externally  in  all  directions.  On  principle  it  does 
not  ask  how  the  people  is  disposed;  it  demands 
obedience :  its  laws  must  be  kept,  whether  willingly  or 
unwillingly.  It  is  a  stepLJn  advan^o  wjien_the  silent 
obedience  of  the^citizen8__become8  an  inward,  rational 
consent,  but  this  consent  is  not  absolutely  necessary/ 
Kingdoms  have  lasted  for  centuries  as  powerful,  highly- 
developed  States,  without  this  inward  consent  of  their 
citizens.  What  the  State  needs,  is  in  the  first  place  what 
is  external ;  it  wills  that  it  be  obeyed,  its  nature  is  to 
execute  what  it  chooses.  The  terrible  /3la  ftla  /Bid^erat 
permeates  the  whole  history  of  States.  When  the 
State  can  no  longer  carry  out  what  it  wills,  it  perishes 
in  anarchy.  What  a  contrast  to  the  life  of  the 
Church  !  One  may  say :  "  Power  is  the  principle  of 
the  State,  as  Faith  is  the  principle  of  the  Church, 
and  Love  of  the  family."  The  Church  as  an  essentially 
internal  system,  which  also  leads  an  external  life,  but 
addresses  itself  in  the  first  instance  to  the  conscience, 
places  value  above  everything  on  the  mind ;  and  a 


§  1]       THE  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  STATE         13 

Church  stands  the  higher,  the  more  inwardly  and  pro- 
foundly she  is  able  to  conceive  this  her  nature.  There- 
fore these  words  apply  here :  "  He  that  eateth  and 
drinketh  unworthily,  eateth  and  drinketh  damnation 
to  himself."  But,  if  the  State  chose  to  think  thus,  if  it 
chanced  to  ask  of  its  soldiers  something  in  addition  to 
the  fulfilment  of  their  military  duties,  that  would  be 
intolerable.  The  State  says :  "  It  is  quite  indifferent 
to  me  what  you  think  about  the 
oBey."  mat  is  the  reason  why  tender  natures  under- 
stamTwith  such  difficulty  the  life  of  the  State:  of 
women  one  can  say  in  general,  that  in  a  normal  way 
they  only  acquire  comprehension  of  Law  and  State 
through  their  husbands,  just  as  the  normal  man  has  by 
nature  no  inclination  for  the  petty  life  of  the  house- 
hold. One  can  understand  that  perfectly,  for  the 
idea  of  power  is  of  course  a  stern  one ; '  to  achieve 
one's  purpose  fully  and  unconditionally  is  here  the 
highest  and  first  thing.  Therefore  the  peoples  that 
form  real  States  are  not  so  much  the  nations  which 
are  gifted  with  genius  as  those  whose  strength  lies  in 
their  character.1  Here  the  history  of  the  world  dis- 
closes a  dreadful  justice  to  the  thoughtful  inquirer. 
The  visionary  may  lament  it,  but  the  serious  thinker 
will  recognize  it  to  have  been  necessary  that  the 
cultivated  Athenians  should  have  succumbed  to  the 
Spartans,  the  Hellenes  to  the  Romans  ;  and  that  in  like 


14  THE  NATUKE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

manner  highly-refined  Florence  could  not  sustain  the 
struggle  with  Venice.  In  everything  there  lies  an 
inherent  necessity.  The  State  is  no  Academy  of  Arts  ; 
if  it  neglects  its  power  in  favour  of  the  ideal  strivings 
of  mankind,  it  renounces  its  nature  and  goes  to  ruin. 
The  renunciation  of  its  own  power  is  for  the  State  in 
the  most  real  sense  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
to  attach  itself  closely  to  a  foreign  State  out  of  senti- 
mentalism,  as  we  Germans  have  often  done  with  the 
English,  is  in  fact  a  deadly  sin. 


. . .  This  truth  remains :  the  essence  of  the  State 
consists  in  this,  that  it  can  suffer  no  higher  power 
above  itself.  How  proud  and  truly  worthy  of  a  State 
was  Gustavus  Adolphus's  declaration  when  he  said : 
"  I  recognize  no  one  above  me  but  God  and  the  sword 
of  the  victor."  That  is  so  unreservedly  true,  that  we 
here  again  at  once  recognize  that  it  cannot  be  the 
future  of  the  human  race  to  form  one  single  political 
power,  but  thak'the  ideal  towards  which  we  strive  is  an 
ordered  company  of  nations,  which  lays  down  limita- 
tions of  sovereignty  in  the  way  of  voluntary  treaties 
without  doing  away  with  that  sovereignty. 

Again,  the  conception  of  sovereignty  can  be  no  rigid 
one ;  it  is  elastic  and  relative  like  all  political  concep- 
tions. Every  State  will  for  its  own  sake  in  a  certain 


§  l]      THE  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  STATE         15 

respect  limit  its  sovereignty  by  treaties.  If  States 
conclude  treaties  with  one  another,  their  completeness 
as  powers  is  to  some  extent  restricted.  But  that  does 
not  invalidate  the  rule,  if  or  every  treaty  is  a  voluntary 
limitation  of  the  individual  power,  and  all  international 
treaties  are  written  with  the  stipulation :  rebus  sic 
stantibus.  A  State  cannot  possibly  bind  its  will  for  the 
future  in  respect  to  another  State.  The  State  has  no 
higher  judge  above  it,  and  will  therefore  conclude  all 
its  treaties  with  that  silent  reservation.  This  is 
vouched  for  by  the  truth,  that,  so  long  as  there  has 
been  a  law  of  nations,  at  the  moment  that  war  was 
declared  between  the  contending  States  all  treaties 
ceased ;  but  every  State  has  as  sovereign  the  undoubted 
right  to  declare  war  when  it  chooses,  consequently 
every  State  is  in  the  position  of  being  able  to  cancel 
any  treaties  which  have  been  concluded.  'Upon  this 
constant  alteration  of  treaties  the  progress  of  history  is 
founded;  every  State  must  see  to  it  that  its  treaties 
remain  in  vigour  and  do  not  go  out  of  date,  so  that 
another  power  does  not  denounce  them  by  declaring 
war  upon  it.  For  treaties  that  have  outlived  them- 
selves must  be  denounced,  and  new  ones  corresponding 
to  the  new  conditions  must  take  their  place. 

From  this  it  is  clear  that  the  international  treaties 
which  restrict  the  will  of  a  State  are  no  absolute 
barriers,  but  voluntary  limitations  of  itself.  From 


16  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

which  certainly  follows,  that  the  erection  of  an  inter- 
national court  of  arbitration  as  a  permanent  institution 
is  incompatible  with  the  nature  of  the  State/  Only  in 
questions  of  the  second  or  third  importance  could  it  in 
any  case  submit  itself  to  such  a  court  of  arbitration. 
For  questions  of  vital  importance  there  is  no  impartial 
foreign  power  in  existence.  If  we  committed  the 
folly  of  treating  the  matter  of  Alsace  as  an  open 
question  and  entrusted  it  to  an  arbiter,  who  will 
seriously  believe  that  he  could  be  impartial  ?  And  it 
is  also  a  matter  of  honour  for  a  State  to  determine 
such  a  question  itself.  Thus  there  can  be  no  final 
international  tribunal  at  all  Only,  international 
treaties  may  become  more  frequent.  But  to  the  end 
of  history  arms  will  maintain  their  rights ;  and  in 
that  very  point  lies  the  sacredness  of  war. 


If  we  apply  the  standard  of  self-government,  it  is  to 
be  observed,  how  in  the  company  of  States  of  Europe 
the  larger  States  are  gaining  an  ever  more  pronounced 
predominance,  just  as  our  State  system  has  assumed  an 
ever  more  aristocratic  character.  It  is  not  yet  so  very 
long  since  that  States  like  Piedmont-Savoy  could  actually 
turn  the  scale  in  a  coalition  by  their  adhesion  or  deser- 
tion. No  one  will  consider  that  possible  nowadays. 
Since  the  Seven  Years'  War  the  ascendency  of  the 


§1]      THE  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  STATE        17 

Five  Great  Powers  has  developed  itself,  having  proved 
itself  necessary.  Great  European  questions  are  dis- 
cussed in  that  circle  only.  Italy  is  nearly  on  the  point 
of  entering  it;  but  neither  Belgium  nor  Sweden  nor 
Switzerland  may  join  in  the  discussion  if  they  are  not 
themselves  directly  concerned. 

/The  whole  development  of  our  company  of  States 
aims  unmistakably  at  ousting  the  States  of  the  second 
rank.  And  here  there  present  themselves,  if  we  take 
the  non-European  world  into  consideration,  prospects 
infinitely  serious  for  ourselves.  At  the  partition  of 
the  non-European  world  among  the  European  powers, 
Germany  has  so  far  always  had  the  worst  of  it,  and 
yet  the  question  whether  we  can  also  become  an  over- 
sea power  concerns  our  existence  as  a  great  State. 
Otherwise  there  presents  itself  the  ghastly  prospect  of 
England  and  Russia  dividing  the  world  between  them ; 
in  which  case  one  really  does  not  know  which  would 
be  more  immoral  and  more  appalling,  the  Russian  knout 
or  the  English  puree. 

If  we  look  closer,  it  is  manifest  that,  if  the  State 
is  power,  it  is  only  the  State  that  is  really  powerful 
that  corresponds  to  our  idea;  Hence  the  undoubted 
ludicrousuess  that  lies  in  the  nature  of  a  small  State. 
Weakness,  it  is  true,  is  nothing  intrinsically  ludicrous, 
but  the  weakness  that  tries  to  pose  as  power  is  indeed 

so.     In  small  States  there  is  developed  that  beggarly 

2 


18  THE  NATUKE  OP  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

frame  of  mind  which  judges  the  State  by  the  taxes 
that  it  raises  ;  which  does  not  feel  that,  if  the  State 
may  not  press  like  an  egg-shell,  it  cannot  protect  either, 
and  that  the  moral  benefits  which  we  owe  to  the  State 
are  beyond  all  price.  It  is  because  it  begets  this 
materialism  that  the  small  State  has  so  pernicious  an 
effect  on  the  mind  of  its  citizens. 

There  is  also  completely  lacking  in  small  States  the 
ability  of  the  great  State  to  be  just.  Whoever  in  a 
small  State  has  a  sufficient  number  of  cousins,  and  is 
not  quite  an  imbecile,  is  soon  provided  for.  Of  course 
the  justice  of  the  great  State  may  easily  degenerate 
into  routine;  it  is  not  altogether  possible  here  so  to 
take  into  account  personal  and  local  conditions  as  in 
the  narrower  circumstances  of  small  States.  . .  Thus 
administration  by  routine  is  an  inevitable  weakness 
of  great  States ;  but  it  can  be  considerably  mitigated 
by  a  greater  independence  of  provinces  and  muni- 
cipalities. 

Thus,  when  we  sum  up,  we  arrive  at  this  result : 
that  the  great  State  has  the  nobler  capacity.  That  is 
true  above  all  of  the  great  fundamental  functions  of 
the  State,  protection  by  arms,  and  law-making.  Both 
can  be  much  better  carried  out  in  a  great  State  than  in 
the  small  one. . . 

Again,  the  economic  superiority  of  great  States  is 
very  obvious.  In  such  great  relations  there  lies  also  a 


§1]       THE  CONCEPTION  OF  THK  STATE        19 

magnificent  assurance  of  one's  own  safety.  Economic 
crises  can  be  far  more  easily  surmounted  by  a  great 
State  than  by  a  small  one ;  failure  of  crops,  for 
instance,  will  hardly  aft'ect  it  in  all  its  parts.  Only  in 
great  States  can  there  be  developed  that  genuine 
national  pride  which  is  the  sign  of  the  moral  efficiency 
of  a  nation  ;  the  cosmopolitanism  of  the  citizens  becomes 
freer  and  greater  in  greater  relations.  Especially  does 
the  command  of  the  sea  work  in  this  direction.  "  The 
free  sea  frees  the  mind ; "  that  expression  of  the  poet's 
atirely  true.  A  time  may  come  when  States  with- 
out oversea  possessions  will  no  longer  count  among 
thr  great  States  at  all. 


We  must  thus  be  careful  not  to  make  pedantic 
inferences  from  detached  facts;  but,  if  we  survey 
history  in  the  mass,  it  is  clear  that  all  real  master- 
pieces of  poetry  and  art  arose  upon  the  soil  of  great 
nationalities.  Proud  Florence  and  Venice  had  such  i 
great  world-intercourse  that  there  could  be  no  question 
in  their  cases  of  the  Philistinism  of  the  small  State. 
In  the  great  mass  of  the  citizens  there  was  an  ideal 
pride  that  recalls  ancient  Athens.  The  poet  and  artist 
must  be  able  to  react  upon  a  great  nation.  When  did 
a  masterpiece  ever  arise  among  a  petty  little  nation  ? 
The  "  Lusiads"  belongs  to  a  time  in  which  Portugal  had 


20  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

discovered  half  the  world.  Thorwaldsen  was  no  Dane  ; 
he  was  born  on  a  ship  on  the  voyage  from  Iceland  to 
Denmark,  and  came  very  early  to  Rome.  Of  Danish 
qualities  one  discovers  absolutely  nothing  in  his  works. 
He  was  a  modern  Hellene ;  to  the  question  what  his 
birthday  was,  he  answered  :  "  I  don't  know  ;  I  came  for 
the  first  time  to  Rome  on  March  8th,  1797." 


More  frequently  to  be  observed  in  modern  history 
are  the  momentous  consequences  of  an  exclusively 
social  existence.  A  nation  that  lives  for  nothing  but 
these  social  desires,  that  wishes  only  to  become  richer 
and  to  live  more  comfortably,  falls  a  complete  victim 
to  the  baser  natural  instincts/  What  a  splendid  people 
the  Dutch  were  in  the  days  of  combat  against  the 
Spanish  world-power  !  Hardly  was  their  independence 
assured,  however,  when  all  the  curse  of  peace  also  began 
to  have  its  effects  upon  the  people.  In  misfortune 
there  lies  a  hardening  influence  for  noble  nations ;  in 
prosperity  even  they  run  the  risk  of  becoming  a  prey 
to  sloth.  Thus  the  once  so  brave  Dutchmen  have 
turned  into  creditors  of  the  State  and  have  degenerated 
thereby,  even  physically.  That  is  the  curse  of  a  people 
that  is  quite  engrossed  in  social  life  and  loses  the  taste 
for  political  greatness. 


§2]  THE  AIM  OF  THE  STATE  31 


§  2.   The  Aim  of  the  State. 

. . .  Here  it  is  very  obvious  that  the  first  task  of 
the  State  is  a  twofold  one :  it  is,  as  we  have  seen, 
power  in  an  external  direction  and  the  regulation  of 
justice  internally;  its  fundamental  functions  must 
therefore  be  the  organization  of  the  army  and  the 
administration  of  the  law,  in  order  to  protect  the 
community  of  its  citizens  from  external  attack,  and  to 
keep  them  within  bounds  internally  .  . 


The  second  essential  function  of  the  State  is  to 
make  war,/  That  we  have  so  long  failed  to  appreciate 
this,  is  a  proof  how  effeminate  the  science  of  the  State 
as  treated  by  the  hands  of  civilians  had  finally  become. 
In  our  century,  since  Clausewitz,  this  sentimental  con- 
ception has  disappeared ;  but  its  place  has  been  taken 
by  a  narrowly  materialistic  one,  which  looks  upon 
man,  after  the  manner  of  Manchesterdom,  as  a  two- 
legged  being  whose  destiny  is  to  buy  cheap  and  to  sell 
dear.  That  this  conception  is  also  very  unfavourable  to 
war  is  explainable;  only  after  the  experiences  of  our  last 
wars  did  a  healthy  view  of  the  State  and  its  warlike 
power  gradually  emerge  again.  Without  war  there 
would  be  no  State  at  all.  All  the  States  known  to  us 


22  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

have  arisen  through  wars  ;  the  protection  of  its  citizens 
by  arms  remains  the  first  and  essential  task  of  the 
State.  And  so  war  will  last  till  the  end  of  history, 
as  long  as  there  is  a  plural  number  of  States/  That 
it  could  ever  be  otherwise  is  neither  to  be  deduced 
from  the  laws  of  thought  or  from  human  nature, 
nor  in  any  way  desirable.  The  blind  worshippers  of 
perpetual  peace  commit  the  error  of  thought,  that  they 
isolate  the  State  or  dream  of  a  World-State,  which  we 
have  already  recognized  as  something  irrational. 

Since  it  is,  further,  impossible,  as  we  have  also 
already  seen,  even  to  picture  to  oneself  a  higher  judge 
above  States,  which  are  sovereign  by  their  nature,  the 
condition  of  war  cannot  be  imagined  away  out  of  the 
world.  It  is  a  favourite  fashion  of  our  time  to  hold 
up  England  as  especially  inclined  to  peace.  But 
England  is  always  making  war ;  there  has  been  hardly 
a  moment  in  modern  history  in  which  she  had  not  to 
fight  somewhere.  The  great  advances  of  mankind  in 
civilization  can  only  be  entirely  realized,  in  face  of  the 
resistance  of  barbarism  and  unreason,  by  the  sword. 
And  even  among  the  civilized  peoples  war  remains 
the  form  of  lawsuit  by  which  the  claims  of  States  are 
enforced.  The  proofs  which  are  led  in  these  dreadful 
international  lawsuits  are  more  compelling  than  the 
proofs  in  any  civil  lawsuit.  How  often  did  we  seek 
to  convince  the  small  States  theoretically  that  only 


§2]  THE  AIM  OF  THE  STATE  23 

Prussia  could  assume  the  leadership  in  Germany ;  the 
really  convincing  proof  we  were  obliged  to  furnish  on 
the  battlefields  in  Bohemia  and  on  the  Main.  War  is 
also  an  element  that  unites  nations,  not  one  that  only 
separates  them  :  it  does  not  only  bring  nations  together 
as  enemies;  they  also  learn  through  it  to  know  and 
respect  one  another  in  their  particular  idiosyncrasies/' 
We  must,  of  course,  also  remember  in  our  considera- 
tion of  war  that  it  does  not  always  appear  as  a  divine 
judgement ;  here,  too,  there  are  transient  successes,  but 
the  life  of  nations  is  reckoned  by  centuries;  We  can 
only  obtain  the  final  verdict  by  the  survey  of  long 
epochs.  /&  State  like  the  Prussian,  which  by  the 
qualities  of  its  people  was  always  freer  and  more 
rational  internally  than  the  French,  might  indeed, 
because  of  transient  enervation,  come  near  to  destruc- 
tion, but  it  was  able  again  to  remember  its  inner 
nature  and  maintain  its  superiority.  One  must  say  in 
the  most  decided  manner:  "War  is  the  only  remedy 
for  ailing  nations."  /The  moment  the  State  calls : 
"  Myself  and  my  existence  are  now  at  stake ! "  social 
self-seeking  must  fall  back  and  every  party  hate  be 
silent/  The  individual  must  forget  his  owr^ego  and 
feel  himself  ;i  memU'i  of  the  whnla  •  ho  muek  geeeg- 
nize  what  a  nothing  his  life  is  in  comparison  with  the 
gonofftl  welfare.  In  lies  the  loftiness 

of  war,  lEat  the  small  man  disappears  entirely  before 


24  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

the  great  thought  of  the  State ;  the  sacrifice  of  fellow- 
countrymen  for  one  another  is  nowhere  so  splendidly 
exhibited  as  in  war.  In  such  days  the  chaff  is  separated 
from  the  wheat. . . 

It  is  precisely  political  idealism  that  demands  wars, 
while  materialism  condemns  theny.  What  a  perver- 
sion of  morality  to  wish  to  eliminate  heroism  from 
humanity!  It  is  the  heroes  of  a  nation  who  are  the 
figures  that  delight  and  inspire  youthful  minds ;  and 
among  authors  it  is  those  whose  words  ring  like  the 
sound  of  trumpets  whom  as  boys  and  youths  we  most 
admire.  He  who  does  not  delight  in  them  is  too 
cowardly  to  bear  arms  himself  for  the  fatherland. 
All  reference  to  Christianity  in  this  case  is  perverse. 
The  Bible  says  explicitly  that  the  powers  that  be  shall 
bear  the  sword,  and  it  also  says  :  "  Greater  love  hath  no 
man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his 
friends."  Those  who  declaim  this  nonsense  of  a  per- 
petual peace  do  not  understand  the  Aryan  peoples ; 
the  Aryan  peoples  are  above  all  things  brave.  They 
have  always  been  men  enough  to  protect  with  the 
sword  what  they  had  won  by  the  spirit. . . 

We  must  not  consider  all  these  things  by  the  light 
of  the  reading-lamp  alone ;  to  the  historian  who  lives 
in  the  world  of  will  it  is  immediately  clear  that  the 
demand  for  a  perpetual  peace  is  thoroughly  reaction- 
ary; he  sees  that  with  war  all  movement,  all  growth, 


§2]  THE  AIM  OF  THE  STATE  25 

must  be  struck  out  of  history.  It  has  always  been 
the  tired,  unintelligent,  and  enervated  periods  that 
have  played  with  the  dream  of  perpetual  peace. . . 
However,  it  is  not  worth  the  trouble  to  discuss  this 
matter  further ;  the  living  God  will  see  to  it  that  war 
constantly  returns  as  a  dreadful  medicine  for  the 
human  race. 

With  all  this  it  is  not  our  intention  to  deny  that 
with  the  progress  of  civilization  wars  must  become 
fewer  and  shorter.  All  civilization  aims  at  making 
human  life  more  harmonious.  Just  as  the  abrupt 
alternation  of  sensualism  and  asceticism,  which  is 
characteristic  of  the  Middle  Ages,  is  DO  longer  natural 
to  the  men  of  to-day,  so  does  war,  which  connotes  a 
complete  breach  with  the  everyday  life,  appear  for  that 
very  reason  so  dreadful  to  us.  The  more  refined  man 
perceives,  indeed,  that  he  must  kill  hostile  opponents, 
whose  bravery  he  esteems  highly;  he  feels  that  the 
majesty  of  war  consists  in  the  very  fact  that  murder 
is  done  in  this  case  without  passion;  therefore  the 
struggle  costs  him  much  more  self-conquest  than  it 
does  the  barbarian. 

And  the  economic  ravages  of  war  are  also  much 
greater  with  civilized  nations  than  with  barbarians. 
A  war  nowadays  may  have  stem,  fearful  consequences, 
especially  through  the  destruction  of  the  ingenious 
credit  system.  If  it  were  ever  to  happen  that  a 


26  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

conqueror  entered  London,  the  effect  would  be  simply 
appalling.  There  meet  the  threads  of  the  credit  of 
millions,  and  a  conqueror  of  Xapoleon's  ruthlessness 
could  cause  ravages  there  of  which  we  have  as  yet  not 
the  slightest  conception.  From  the  natural  horror 
men  have  for  the  shedding  of  blood,  from  the  size  and 
quality  of  modern  armies,  it  necessarily  follows  that 
wars  must  become  fewer  and  shorter,  for  it  is  impos- 
sible to  see  how  the  burdens  of  a  great  war  can  be 
borne  for  any  prolonged  period  under  present  con- 
ditions in  the  world.  But  it  is  a  fallacy  to  infer  from 
that  that  they  could  ever  cease  altogether.  They 
cannot  and  should  not  cease,  so  long  as  the  State  is 
sovereign  and  confronts  other  sovereign  States. 


§  3.    The  Relation  of  the  State  to  the  Moral  Law. 

...  It  was  Machiavelli  who  expressed  the  thought 
that,  when  the  safety  of  the  State  was  at  stake,  the 
purity  of  the  means  employed  should  not  be  called  in 
question ;  if  only  the  State  were  preserved,  every  one 
would  subsequently  approve  of  the  means.  In  order 
to  understand  Machiavelli,  we  must  take  him  histori- 
cally. He  is  the  son  of  a  race  that  is  in  the  act  of 
passing  out  of  the  limitations  of  the  Middle  Ages  into 
the  subjective  freedom  of  modern  thought  Round 


§  3]    RELATION  OF  STATE  TO  MORAL  LAW   jjTy 

about  him  in  Italy  he  saw  the  prodigious  forms  of 
those  tyrants  in  whom  the  lavish  endowments  of  that 
gifted  people  were  so  wonderfully  exhibited.  These 
tyrants  of  Italy  were  all  born  Maecenases ;  they  also 
said,  like  the  great  artist:  "  I  am  myself  alone," 
Machiavelli  took  delight  in  these  gifted,  powerful  men. 
It  will  ever  remain  Machiavelli's  glory  that  he  set  the 
State  upon  its  own  feet  and  freed  it  in  its  morality 
from  the  Church ;  and  also,  above  all,  that  he  declared 
clearly  for  the  first  time :  "  The  State  is  power."  In 
spite  of  this,  however,  Machiavelli  himself  still  stands 
with  one  foot  on  the  threshold  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
When  he  tries  to  set  the  State  free  from  the  Church, 
and  says,  with  the  boldness  of  the  modern  Italian 
patriot,  that  the  ('hair  of  Rome  has  hurled  Italy  into 
despair  and  misery,  he  nevertheless  does  not  get  rid  of 
the  idea  that  morality  is  altogether  ecclesiastical,  and, 
while  he  drags  the  State  away  from  the  Church,  he 
drags  it  away  from  the  moral  law  altogether.  He 
says:  "The  State  must  pursue  its  power  as  its  only 
objective ;  what  is  good  for  that  purpose  is  proper  and 
necessary."  Machiavelli  tries  to  think  as  one  of  the 
ancients,  and  yet  he  cannot  do  it,  because  he  has  eaten 
of  the  tree  of  knowledge ;  because  he  is  a  Christian 
without  knowing  it  and  without  wishing  it 

Thus  his  view  of  the  freedom  of  political  morality 
has  remained  in  many  ways  a  troubled  and  confused 


28  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

one,  because  of  his  place  in  a  period  of  transition. 
That  must  not  hinder  us  from  declaring  joyfully  that 
the  gifted  Florentine,  with  all  the  vast  consequence  of 
his  thinking,  was  the  first  to  set  in  the  centre  of  all 
politics  the  great  thought :  "  The  State  is  power."  For 
that  is  the  truth ;  and  he  who  is  not  man  enough  to 
look  this  truth  in  the  face  ought  to  keep  his  hands  off 
politics.  We  must  never  forget  this  great  service  of 
Machiavelli's,  even  if  we  clearly  recognize  the  deep 
immorality  in  other  respects  of  his  teaching  regarding 
the  State.  'It  is  not  the  fact  that  he  is  entirely 
indifferent  as  to  the  means  employed  by  power  that 
revolts  us,  but  that  everything  turns  upon  how  the 
highest  power  is  acquired  and  retained,  and  that  this 
power  itself  has  no  content  for  him.  That  the  power 
acquired  must  justify  itself  by  employing  itself  for  the 
highest  moral  good  of  mankind,  of  that  we  find  no 
trace  in  his  teaching. 

Machiavelli  has  entirely  failed  to  see  how  this 
doctrine  of  mere  power  is  self-contradictory  even  from 
his  own  standpoint.  Whom  does  he  put  forward  as 
the  ideal  of  a  clever  and  capable  prince  ?  Caesar 
Borgia.  But  can  this  uncanny  man  be  looked  upon  as 
the  ideal  of  a  statesman  even  in  Machiavelli's  sense  ? 
Did  he,  by  chance,  create  anything  enduring  ?  His 
State  was  broken  up  immediately  after  his  death. 
After  he  had  brought  countless  numbers  into  the  trap, 


§  3]    RELATION  OF  STATE  TO  MORAL  LAW     29 

he  was  enticed  into  it  himself  and  perished  miserably. 
A  power  that  treads  all  right  underfoot  must  in  the 
end  itself  perish,  for  in  the  moral  world  nothing 
remains  firm  that  is  not  able  to  resist. 

Since,  then,  Machiavelli's  ideas  stand  out  in  terrible 
nakedness  and  hardness,  the  book  of  "  The  Prince  "  has 
in  it  for  most  men  something  quite  terrifying,  but  its 
effects  up  to  the  present  day  have  been  immense, 
Even  Napoleon  III.'s  coup  d'ttat  was  evidently  prepared 
according  to  Machiavelli's  recipe.  The  book  has  in 
practice  become  a  teacher  again  and  again,  mostly  in 
his  own  time;  William  of  Orange  kept  it  constantly 
under  the  pillow  of  his  couch.  The  whole  seventeenth 
century  is  tilled  with  Machiavellism,  with  a  statesman- 
ship which  tramples  the  moral  laws  underfoot  as  a 
matter  of  principle.  This  "  reason  of  State,"  a  policy 
that  inquires  only  concerning  expediency  for  the  State, 
becomes  towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  of 
an  unscrupulousneas  such  as  we  can  no  longer  form  an 
idea  of  nowadays.  The  ugly  connotation  that  the  word 
"  political "  has  had  so  long  among  the  common  people 
dates  from  that  period.  Machiavelli's  book  was  called 
"  The  Devil's  Catechism,"  or  "  The  Ten  Commandments 
Reversed  "  ;  his  name  became  a  term  of  disgust ;  a  great 
literature  of  works  written  against  him  arose,  each  one 
more  moral  than  the  other.  It  is  sad  to  observe  that 
so-called  public  opinion  is  always  much  more  moral 


30  THE  NATUKE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

than  the  deeds  of  the  individuals  themselves.  The 
average  man  is  ashamed  to  mention  publicly  and  to 
approve  a  thousand  things  that  he  actually  does. 
What  the  ordinary  man,  when  he  is  not  himself  con- 
cerned, can  accomplish  in  the  way  of  Cossack-like 
defence  of  virtue  is  unbelievable.  He  who  has  felt 
profoundly  unhappy,  he  who  has  once  believed  that  he 
would  never  escape  from  his  inward  grief,  may  become 
a  misanthropist  when  he  listens  to  his  comforters. 
'Therefore  among  all  nations  the  public  opinion  that 
comes  to  the  light  is  very  naturally  much  more  severe 
than  the  real  thoughts  of  men/ 


Of  course  journalistic  phrase-mongers  talk  of  great 
statesmen  as  of  a  disreputable  class  of  men,  as  if  lying 
was  inseparable  from  diplomacy.  The  very  opposite  is 
the  truth.  The  really  great  statesmen  have  always 
been  distinguished  by  an  immense  openness.  Frederick 
the  Great  declared  before  every  one  of  his  wars  with 
the  greatest  precision  what  it  was  he  wished  to  attain. 
It  is  true  that  he  did  not  despise  cunning  as  a  means, 
but  upon  the  whole  his  truthfulness  is  one  of  his 
predominant  characteristics.  How  potent,  with  all 
his  slyness  in  details,  is  Bismarck's  solid  frankness 
in  great  matters !  And  it  was  the  most  effective 
weapon  for  him,  for  the  small  diplomatists  always 


§  3]    RELATION  OF  STATE  TO  MORAL  LAW     31 

believed  the  opposite  when  he  frankly  declared  what 
he  wanted.  If  we  survey  human  callings,  in  which 
are  the  most  lies  told  ?  Obviously  in  the  world  of 
commerce ;  and  that  has  been  so  at  all  times.  Here 
in  the  matter  of  advertising  lying  has  been  actually 
turned  into  a  system.  Compared  with  it  diplomacy 
appears  innocent  as  a  dove.  And  the  immeasurable 
difference  therewith !  If  an  unscrupulous  speculator 
lies  on  the  Stock  Exchange,  he  thinks  only  of  his  own 
purse ;  but  a  diplomatist  thinks  of  his  country  if 
during  a  political  negotiation  he  becomes  guilty  of  an 
obscuration  of  facts.  /As  historians,  who  seek  to  survey 
the  whole  of  human  life,  we  must  therefore  say  that 
the  diplomatic  calling  is  a  much  more  moral  one  than 
that  of  the  merchant.  The  moral  danger  that  is 
nearest  to  the  diplomatist  does  not  lie  in  mendacity, 
but  in  the  spiritual  shallownets  that  is  born  of  tin 
elegant  life  of  the  sai 


If  we  now  apply  this  standard  of  a  more  profound 
and  genuinely  Christian  morality  to  the  State,  and  if 
we  remember  that  the  essence  of  this  great  collective 
personality  is  power,  then  it  is  in  that  case  the  highest 
moral  duty  of  the  State  to  safeguard  its  power.  The 
individual  must  sacrifice  himself  for  a  higher  com- 
Inumtyof  which  he  is  a  member^  "b^t 


32  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

itself  the  highest  in  the  external  community  of  men, 
•  therefore  the  duty  of  self-elimination  cannot  affeok-it^ai, 
all.  The  Christian  duty  of  self-sacrifice  for  something 
higher  has  no  existence  whatever  for  the  State,  because 
there  is  nothing  whatever  beyond  it  in  world-history ; 
consequently  it  cannot  sacrifice  itself  for  anything 
higher.  If  the  State  sees  its  downfall  confronting  it, 
we  praise  it  if  it  falls  sword  in  hand.  Self-sacrifice 
for  a  foreign  nation  is  not  only  not  moral,  but  it 
contradicts  the  idea  of  self-preservation,  which  is  the 
highest  thing  for  the  State. 

Thus  it  follows  from  this,  that  we  must  distinguish 
between  public  and  private  morality^  The  order  of 
rank  of  the  various  duties  must  necessarily  be  for  the 
State,  as  it  is  power,  quite  other  than  for  individual 
men.  A  whole  series  of  these  duties,  which  are 
obligatory  on  the  individual,  are  not  to  be  thought 
of  in  any  case  for  the  State.  To  maintain  itself 
counts  for  it  always  as  the  highest  commandment;  that 
is  absolutely  moral  for  it.  And  on  that  account  we 
must  declare  that  of  all  political  sins  that  of  weakness 
is  the  most  reprehensible  and  the  most  contemptible; 
it  is  in  politics  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost. . . 


It  further  follows  from  the  nature  of  the  State  as 
sovereign  Power  that  it  cannot  recognize  an  arbiter 


§  3]    RELATION  OF  STATE  TO  MORAL  LAW     S» 

above  itself,  and  consequently  legal  obligations  must 
in  the  lust  resort  be  subject  to  its  own  judgement.  We 
must  keep  this  in  view,  in  order  not  to  judge  pedanti- 
cally in  great  crises  from  the  standpoint  of  the  advocate. 
When  Prussia  broke  the  treaty  of  Tilsit,  it  was  in  the 
wrong  from  the  standpoint  of  civil  law.  But  who  will 
have  the  brazenness  to  maintain  this  at  the  present 
time  ?  The  French  themselves  do  so  no  longer.  This 
is  true  also  of  international  treaties,  which  are  not 
quite  as  immoral  as  that  compulsory  one  between 
Prussia  and  France  was.  Thus  every  State  reserves 
to  itself  the  right  to  decide  upon  its  treaty  obligations, 
and  here  the  historian  cannot  make  a  merely  formal 
standard  suffice.  He  must  ask  the  deeper  question : 
whether  the  unconditioned  duty  of  self-preservation 
does  not  justify  the  State.  Such  was  the  case  in  Italy 
in  1859.  Formally,  of  course,  Piedmont  was  the 
aggressor;  and  Austria  and  her  servile  adherents  in 
Germany  were  not  slow  to  complain  of  the  interrup- 
tion of  the  perpetual  peace.  In  reality,  however,  Italy 
had  been  for  years  under  martial  law.  No  noble 
nation  endures  such  a  position,  and  as  a  matter  of 
fact  it  was  not  Piedmont,  but  Austria,  that  was  the 
aggressor,  for  she  had  sinned  shamelessly  for  years 
against  the  greatest  good  of  the  Italians. 

Thus  the  mere  preservation  of  its  power  is  an  in- 
comparably high  moral  task  for  the  State.     But,  if  we 

3 


34  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

follow  out  the  consequences  of  this  truth,  it  is  clear 
that  the  State  must  only  set  moral  aims  before  it, 
otherwise  it  would  contradict  itself.  The  policy,  in 
principle  immoral,  of  naked  and  brutal  greed  of  terri- 
tory, as  Napoleon  I.  pursued  it,  is  also  in  the  highest 
degree  impolitic.  France  had  in  no  wise  the  power 
to  assimilate  its  conquests  and,  as  Napoleon  desired, 
to  become  the  leading  State  of  Europe.  It  was  a  sin 
against  the  spirit  of  history  that  the  rich  diversity  of 
kindred  peoples  should  be  changed  into  the  dreary 
uniformity  of  a  world-empire.  Such  a  naked  policy 
of  conquest  in  the  long  run  destroys  its  own  instru- 
ments. When  Napoleon  made  his  appearance,  his 
army  was  the  best  in  Europe.  It  was  supported  by 
the  moral  strength  of  genuine  enthusiasm  and  a  dis- 
cipline worthy  of  admiration.  How  was  this  changed 
in  the  year  1812  !  Napoleon  brought  only  a  fourth 
part  of  his  troops  to  Moscow,  without  having  lost  a 
battle.  A  moral  disorderliness  had  set  in,  which  really 
decided  the  Russian  campaign.  The  policy  of  world- 
conquest  of  our  ancient  German  empire  we  also  recog- 
nize to-day  to  have  been  a  huge  blunder.  It  presumed 
to  take  possession  of  countries  which  could  not  be  fitted 
to  the  national  State  as  living  members.  We  have 
been  punished  for  these  sins  for  centuries  since  by  our 
passive  cosmopolitanism.  It  is  just  as  immoral,  and 
impolitic  at  the  same  time,  if  the  State  interferes  by 


§  3]    RELATION  OF  STATE  TO  MORAL  LAW     35 

forcible  repression  with  the  religious  life  of  its  subjects, 
for  here  it  touches  the  marrow  of  its  people.  Through 
the  fact  that  Austria,  during  the  religious  struggles, 
persecuted  and  expelled  many  of  her  best  Germans, 
Germanism  in  that  State  suffered  a  blow  from  which 
it  has  not  yet  recovered. 

So  even  the  State  is  everywhere  subjected  to  the 
laws  of  its  moral  nature,  which  it  may  not  infringe  with 
impunity.  Statesmanship  demands  an  iron  character, 
a  man  of  strong  nerves,  who  is  in  a  position  to  over- 
come in  the  numerous  conflicts  to  which  it  leads.  It 
demands  above  all  great  intelligence.  Astuteness  is 
for  the  statesman,  on  whose  shoulders  the  fate  of 
millionu  rests,  not  only  an  intellectual,  but  a  moral 
virtue.  He  must  be  able  to  observe  things  as  they 
i rally  are;  and,  if  he  cannot  do  that,  he  must  keep 
his  awkward  hands  away  from  things  he  does  not 
understand. . . 

Thus  far  there  can  hardly  have  been  anything  that 
serious  thinkers  will  dispute,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
series  of  the  most  difficult  questions  begins  with  the  con- 
sideration to  what  extent,  for  intrinsically  moral  aims, 
it  is  permissible  in  politics  to  employ  mer.ns  which  in 
ordinary  civil  life  would  be  looked  upon  as  reprehen- 
sible. The  well-known  expression  of  the  Jesuits  is 
indeed  brutal  and  radical  in  its  abruptness,  but  no  one 
can  dispute  the  fact  that  it  contains  a  certain  amount 


36  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

of  truth.  There  are,  unfortunately,  numberless  cases 
in  the  life  of  the  State,  as  in  the  life  of  the  individual, 
in  which  the  employment  of  perfectly  pure  means  is 
impossible.  If  it  is  possible,  if  an  intrinsically  moral 
aim  can  be  attained  with  moral  means,  these  are  to  be 
preferred,  even  if  they  lead  more  slowly  and  awkwardly 
to  the  goal. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  power  of  truth  and 
openness  in  politics  is  much  greater  than  is  usually 
maintained.  The  modern  idea  is  that  there  is  no  love 
of  truth  at  all  in  man;  everything  is  said  to  have 
arisen  conventionally  in  course  of  law  because  of  the 
object  in  view.  No,  there  is  a  love  of  truth  born  in 
us  that  varies  only  according  to  times  and  peoples. 
Even  among  the  nations  most  given  to  lying,  the 
Orientals,  we  find  this  love  of  truth.  Wellington's 
elder  brother  acquired  an  immense  power  in  India 
through  the  fact  that  the  Nabobs  knew :  "  This  man 
always  says  what  he  thinks."  On  the  whole,  however, 
it  is  clear  that  the  means  which  policy  employs  towards 
peoples  which  are  still  on  a  lower  level  of  civilization 
must  be  suited  to  their  capacity  of  feeling  and  com- 
prehension. The  historian  who  would  judge  European 
policy  in  Africa  or  in  the  East  in  the  same  way  as  that 
in  Europe  would  be  a  fool.  He  who  cannot  instil  fear 
in  these  places  is  lost.  If  the  English  during  the 
Indian  Mutiny  tied  the  Hindus  to  the  mouths  of  the 


§  35    RELATION  OF  STATE  TO  MORAL  LAW     37 

cannons  and  blew  them  to  pieces,  so  that  their  bodies 
were  scattered  to  all  the  winds,  we  cannot  blame  that, 
seeing  that  death  immediately  supervened.  It  is  clear 
that  in  such  a  position  terrorizing  means  had  to  be 
adopted  ;  and  if  we  accept  as  true,  what  an  Englishman 
will  certainly  maintain,  that  the  English  rule  in  India 
is  moral  and  necessary,  then  we  cannot  in  that  case 
condemn  these  means. 

/Thus  it  behoves  us  to  apply  the  standard  of  rela- 
tivity to  place  as  well  as  to  time./  If  you  remember, 
further,  that  in  international  intercourse  States  very 
often  remain  for  many  decades  in  a  condition  of  veiled 
warfare,  then  it  is  quite  evident  that  many  diplomatic 
wilos  are  justified  by  this  condition  of  latent  warfare 
alone.  Think  of  the  negotiations  between  Bismarck 
and  Benedetti.  Bismarck  had  the  hope  that  he  might 
possibly  still  avoid  a  great  war ;  then  Benedetti  came 
with  his  shameless  demands;  was  it  not  quite  moral 
for  Bismarck  to  put  him  off  with  half-promises,  as  if 
Germany  might  consent  ?  The  like  is  the  case  with 
methods  of  bribery  against  another  State  in  such  cir- 
cumstances of  latent  warfare.  It  is  ridiculous  to 
oppose  this  with  moral  bluster  and  to  demand  that 
in  such  a  position  a  State  should  always  take  its  cate- 
chism in  its  hand  first.  Before  the  outbreak  of  the 
Seven  Years'  War  Frederick  had  the  presentiment  that 
some  storm  was  gathering  over  his  little  State.  There- 


38  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

upon  he  bribed  two  Saxon-Polish  secretaries  in  Dresden 
and  Warsaw  and  obtained  news  from  them,  which 
fortunately  was  exaggerated.  Should  King  Frederick, 
when  he  put  to  himself  the  question :  "  How  shall  I 
rescue  my  noble  Prussia  from  ruin  ? "  have  had  respect 
for  the  official  regulations  of  the  electorate  of  Saxony  ? 
Every  State  knows  this  about  the  other :  there  is  no 
State  in  the  world  that  at  such  junctures  would  not 
keep  rascals  for  the  purpose  of  spying.  Only  the 
results  of  such  means  must  not  be  exaggerated ;  they 
play  only  a  small  part.  But  it  is  clear  that  they  must 
be  permitted  to  the  Foreign  Office  of  a  great  nation 
against  alien  States. 

Within  our  own  State,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
morality  must  be  much  purer  and  more  susceptible, 
for  the  regulations  of  my  own  State  are  sacred  to  me. 
As  for  inner  party  politics,  the  existence  of  forms  of 
corruption  can  be  established  everywhere.  In  our 
Parliaments  there  are,  of  course,  occasional  cases  of 
tacit,  indirect  corruption.  That  the  shareholders  of 
great  industrial  undertakings  practise  bribery,  appears 
indeed  from  time  to  time,  but  it  is  nevertheless  com- 
paratively rare.  Look  at  England,  on  the  other  hand, 
with  its  Parliament,  half  of  which  consists  of  railway 
directors,  or  at  Spain ! 


§4]       THE  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  STATES        39 

§  4.  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  States. 

. . .  States  do  not  arise  out  of  the  people's  sovereignty, 
but  they  are  created  against  the  will  of  the  people; 
the  State  is  the  power  of  the  stronger  race  which 
establishes  itself. 

And  indeed  there  is  nothing  to  be  regretted  in  all 
this.  In  conditions  so  simple  material  power  must 
decide,  and  this  power  of  the  victor  justifies  itself 
morally,  by  becoming  a  protection  and  thereby  working 
beneficially.  How  wittily  has  Thucydides  expressed 
this  in  the  introduction  to  his  history,  which  contains 
a  host  of  flashes  of  inspired  thought !  In  it  he  portrays 
the  half-legeudary  Minos  of  Crete,  how  he  conquered 
the  supremacy  for  himself,  but  then  used  his  assured 
power  to  free  the  seas  round  about  from  pirates,  and 
thereby  to  make  his  supremacy  beneficial  and  bear- 
able. In  the  further  course  of  history,  also,  among 
all  forces  that  we  know,  war  is  the  mightiest  and  most 
efficient  moulder  of  nations.  Only  in  war  does  a  nation 
become  a  nation,  and  the  expansion  of  existing  States 
proceeds  in  most  cases  by  the  way  of  conquest,  even 
if  afterwards  the  results  of  the  armed  combat  are 
recognized  by  treaty. 


40  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.I 

All  great  nations  of  history,  when  they  had  become 
strong,  have  felt  the  craving  to  impress  the  seal  of 
their  nature  upon  barbaric  lands.  And  to-day  we  see 
the  nations  of  Europe  busily  engaged  in  creating  all 
over  the  globe  a  wholesale  aristocracy  of  the  white  race. 
That  nation  which  does  not  take  a  share  in  this  great 
rivalry  will  play  a  pitiful  part  at  some  later  day.  It 
is  therefore  a  vital  question  for  a  great  nation  to-day  to 
display  a  craving  for  colonies.  The  first  nation  of 
history  to  recognize  the  majesty  of  a  world-trade,  the 
Phoenician,  was  also  a  great  colonizer.  Then  follows 
the  colonization  of  the  Greeks  in  the  eastern  and  western 
basins  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  then  the  Romans ;  in  the 
Middle  Ages  the  Germans,  Spanish  and  Portuguese; 
finally  Holland  and  England,  after  the  Germans  were 
entirely  eliminated  for  a  long  space  from  the  number 
of  maritime  powers. 

Agricultural  colonies  are  certainly  the  richest  in 
blessings  for  the  national  life.  In  districts  which  in 
their  climate  correspond  in  some  measure  to  our  own 
and  permit  large  emigration  from  the  mother  country, 
as  huge  an  increase  of  population  as  we  find  in  America 
can,  under  favourable  economic  conditions,  take  place. 
But  in  the  case  of  such  colonies  the  danger  is  also 
most  threatening,  of  their  turning  against  the  mother 
country  and  seeking  to  break  loose  from  it.  England, 
schooled  by  experience,  has  learned  to  avoid  this.  The 


§4]       THE  KISE  AND  FALL  OF  STATES        41 

independence  of  the  English  colonies  goes  so  far, 
indeed,  that  they  have  even  tariff  walls  against  the 
mother  country. 

The  reciprocal  relations  between  colony  and  mother 
country  belong  to  the  most  delicate  problems  of  history, 
and  in  this  case  we  should  beware  of  endeavouring  to 
discover  natural  laws  in  the  world  of  history,  that  is 
to  say,  in  the  world  of  freedom.  No  one  will  try  to 
maintain  to-day  that  colonies  must  of  necessity  break 
loose  from  the  mother  country.  That  Canada  will  do 
this  one  day  is  probable,  above  all  because  the  best  part 
of  Canada  is  French.  Whether,  on  the  other  hand, 
Australia  will  ever  break  away,  is  more  than  doubtful ; 
an  English  policy  of  some  astuteness  would  probably 
be  able  to  prevent  that.  It  will  depend  what  men  are 
at  the  wheel  in  Australia  and  England,  and  how  they 
recognize  the  signs  of  the  times.  But,  even  if  England 
found  herself  compelled  to  give  up  a  part  of  her 
colonies,  she  would  still  retain  an  incalculable  advan- 
tage as  regards  culture  and  economics,  for  the  bond  of 
the  mother  tongue  is  an  eminently  important  momentum 
in  trade.  Thus  North  America's  principal  business 
connection  is  still  with  England.  A  colony,  that  is 
attached  to  the  mother  country  by  language  and 
culture,  never  becomes  entirely  lost  to  it,  even  if  it 
breaks  away  politically.  That  is  also  proved  by  the 
relations  between  America  and  England.  What  does 


42  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

it  not  signify,  that  there  will  soon  be  three  hundred 
millions  of  English-speaking  people  ? 

We,  on  the  other  hand,  see  to-day  what  we  have 
missed.  The  consequences  of  the  last  half-century 
have  been  terrible  ;  in  it  England  has  first  conquered 
the  world.  The  Continent,  in  continual  unrest,  had 
no  time  to  turn  its  eyes  across  the  sea,  where  England 
seized  upon  everything.  The  Germans  have  been 
obliged  to  miss  this  and  to  sleep  through  it,  because 
they  had  so  much  to  do  with  their  neighbours  and 
with  their  own  internal  struggles.  Without  any 
doubt  whatever  a  great  colonial  development  is  a 
fortunate  thing  for  a  nation.  And  that  is  where  the 
short-sightedness  of  our  opponents  of  colonies  at  the  pre- 
sent day  comes  in,  that  they  do  not  understand  this. 
Yet  the  whole  position  of  Germany  hangs  upon  how 
many  millions  of  people  will  speak  German  in  the  future. 

If  it  is  maintained  that  the  emigration  of  Germans 
to  America  is  an  advantage,  that  is  a  piece  of  folly. 
What  has  Germany  gained  from  the  fact  that  thousands 
of  her  best  sons,  who  could  not  find  a  livelihood  at 
home,  have  turned  their  backs  on  the  fatherland  ? 
They  are  lost  to  it  for  ever.  If  the  emigrant  himself 
is  perhaps  still  united  by  certain  natural  ties  to  his 
home,  his  children,  as  a  rule,  but  in  any  case  his  grand- 
children, are  Germans  no  more ;  for  the  German  learns 
only  too  easily  to  renounce  his  fatherland.  And  indeed 


§4]       THE  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  STATES        43 

in  America  they  are  in  no  position  to  maintain  their 
nationality  permanently.  Just  as  certainly  as  the 
Huguenots,  when  they  immigrated  into  the  march  of 
Brandenburg,  were  on  the  average  more  cultivated  than 
the  Brandenburgers  and  were  yet  obliged  to  lose  their 
nationality  amid  the  multitude  of  the  old  inhabitants, 
in  like  manner  was  this  the  case  with  the  Germans  in 
America.  Almost  a  third  of  the  population  of  North 
America  is  of  German  origin.  How  much  of  the  most 
valuable  energies  have  we  lost  through  emigration, 
and  are  still  losing  daily,  without  obtaining  even  the 
slightest  compensation  therefor !  The  working  power 
as  well  as  the  capital  of  the  emigrants  is  lost  to  us. 
What  incalculable  financial  advantages  would  these 
people  afford  us  as  colonists  ! 

Thus  that  colonization  which  preserves  homogeneous 
nationality  has  become  a  factor  of  huge  importance  for 
the  future  of  the  world.  It  will  depend  upon  it  in 
what  measure  each  nation  will  participate  in  the 
domination  of  the  world  by  the  white  race ;  it  is  very 
easily  conceivable  that  a  country  that  has  no  colonies 
will  one  day  cease  to  be  numbered  among  the  Great 
Powers  of  Europe,  however  powerful  it  may  be  other- 
wise. On  that  account  we  must  not  arrive  at  that 
stage  of  torpor  which  is  the  consequence  of  a  purely 
continental  policy,  and  the  result  of  our  next  successful 
war  must  if  possible  be  the  acquisition  of  some  colony 


44  THE  NATUKE  OF  THE  STATE         [BK.  i 

§  5.   Government  and  Governed. 

The  position  is  similar  in  military  affairs.  Formerly, 
so  long  as  the  State  was  looked  upon  as  an  economic 
undertaking,  the  opinion  prevailed  in  Germany  that 
the  economic  principle  of  division  of  labour  should  also 
be  applied  to  the  army.  Professional  soldiers,  well- 
drilled  mercenaries,  were  demanded,  so  that  civilian 
life  should  be  preserved  as  much  as  possible  from  the 
confusion  of  war.  Only  stern  and  great  experiences 
have  brought  a  change  in  this  matter,  and  now  even 
the  average  man  feels  that  military  affairs  stand 
higher  than  economic  interests,  that  they  are  exalted 
beyond  all  price,  that  it  is  here  a  matter  of  moral 
energies,  and  that  these  are  most  surely  awakened  and 
turned  to  account  when  the  obligation  to  bear  arms  is 
universal. 

This  naive  selfishness  of  the  governed  is  opposed  by 
the  essentially  politic  view  of  those  who  govern,  who 
do  not  look  upon  the  State  from  within  a  group  of 
interests,  but  from  the  standpoint  of  the  whole.  They 
think  first  of  the  power  and  unity  of  the  whole; 
and,  as  they  bear  the  heavy  responsibility  of  the  fate 
of  millions,  they  look  upon  strict  obedience  as  the  first 
requisite.  Therefore,  in  every  sound  government  the 
need  of  permanence  must  predominate.  It  is  a  well- 


§  5]        GOVERNMENT  AND  GOVERNED          45 

known  experience  that  members  of  the  opposition  who 
have  entered  the  government  have  in  most  cases  to 
suffer  the  reproach  of  their  former  associates  that  they 
have  changed  their  opinions  and  are  no  longer  free. 
Quite  wrongly ;  for  the  same  men,  who  formerly 
criticized  the  government  from  a  partial  standpoint, 
now  see  for  the  first  time  that  it  has  to  study  many 
other  circles  of  interests.  It  is  for  that  reason  that 
self-administration  is  of  such  great  political  importance, 
for  it  fills  even  the  middle  classes  with  the  ideas  of 
the  government.  When  the  greatest  possible  number 
of  citizens  is  attracted  to  political  self-activity  and 
helps  to  bear  the  responsibility  of  administration,  a 
great  proportion  of  the  nation  is  filled  with  expert 
knowledge  of  political  affairs  and  acquires  also  some- 
thing of  the  feeling  of  responsibility. 

From  an  unprejudiced  consideration  of  history  it 
clearly  results  that  parties  are  a  political  necessity  for 
free  peoples.  By  means  of  party  life  the  countless 
opinions  of  all  individuals  are  concentrated  in  an 
average  opinion,  which  establishes  the  vague  opinion 
of  the  individual  in  a  definite  direction.  If  the  neces- 
sity of  taking  a  side  may  be  beneficial  as  a  stimulus 
for  many  natures,  on  the  other  hand  the  terrorism  of 
the  party  system  has  also,  of  course,  a  pernicious 


46  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  STATE    [BK.I,§S 

effect,  for  it  is  clear  that  every  party  is  and  must  be 
one-sided.  A  purely  national  party  can  only  be  found, 
say,  in  nations  that  are  still  fighting  for  independence, 
for  liberation  from  an  anti-national  power.  Thus  a 
union  of  all  parties  took  place  in  Piedmont  in  1859 
under  the  influence  of  Cavour.  That  great  man  carried 
all  parties  in  the  State  along  with  him  at  that  time ; 
all  opposition  grew  silent  before  the  common  task  of 
the  national  unity  of  Italy.  In  a  well-ordered,  inde- 
pendent State  there  will  be  no  national  party.  The 
name  "  national  liberal "  was  a  brilliant  discovery, 
sounding  so  well  that  it  pleases  everybody;  but  it  is 
only  a  name. 


BOOK  II.  THE  SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS 
OF  THE  STATE 

§  6.  Country  and  People. 

THUS  the  same  geographical  conditions  have  had  very 
different  effects  according  to  the  degrees  of  civilization 
of  the  inhabitants.  The  history  of  England  shows 
this  very  conspicuously.  England  has  always  been  an 
island ;  but  what  different  effects  this  insular  position 
has  had  at  different  periods!  In  the  days  of  the 
Norwegian  sea-kings,  when  the  Vikings  ruled  all  the 
seas,  an  island  was  more  exposed  to  hostile  attacks 
than  the  mainland.  A  wholesome  shaking-up  of  differ- 
ent ethnographical  elements  took  place;  and  so  that 
mixture  of  peoples  became  possible  on  which  Eng- 
land's modern  history  is  essentially  based.  In  later 
days,  when  the  organization  of  the  sea-robbers  was 
broken  up,  and  the  country  became  more  thickly 
populated,  Shakespeare  could  speak  of  the  silver 
wall  behind  which  England  might  stand  calmly  and 
securely.  That  is  still  true  to-day ;  and  so  the  same 
insular  position  has  made  possible  for  the  country 


48        SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  STATE   [BK.  n 

in  modern  times   an   almost    uninterrupted    national 
development. 


Thus  we  see  how  climatic  conditions  regulate  economic 
and  civilized  life  in  the  strictest  fashion. . . 

If  we  apply  this  standard,  we  may  again  regard 
England  as  wonderfully  preferred  by  Nature.  Her 
situation  and  configuration  are  enviably  favourable ;  a 
temperate,  moist  climate,  which  allows  the  fruits  of 
the  field  to  ripen  in  a  way  that  is  not  by  a  long  way 
possible  in  our  East.  In  England  the  farmer  is  only 
obliged  to  stop  work  for  about  four  weeks,  while  ours 
must  be  idle  almost  all  winter.  Add  to  this  the  insular 
position,  the  configuration  of  the  coast,  the  short  rivers, 
which,  however,  are  accessible  to  ebb  and  flow.  A  few 
leagues  above  London  the  Thames  is  a  tiny,  charming 
stream,  flowing  among  meadows;  at  London  it  is  a 
powerful  river,  which  carries  the  largest  ships.  A 
brave  and  diligent  nation  was  bound  of  necessity  to 
become  great  and  powerful  under  such  conditions. 

As  for  the  geographical  conditions  of  the  State, 
among  all  the  gifts  of  Nature  there  is  none  in  this 
connection  more  valuable  than  position  on  the  sea. 
Yet  it  depends  in  this  case  also  whether  a  nation 
understands  how  to  make  use  of  this  advantage.  The 
Spartans,  as  is  well  known,  had  a  coast-line  as  well  as 


§6]  COUNTKY  AND  PEOPLE  49 

the  Athenians,  yet  their  State  always  remained  an 
inland  State,  while  Athens  became  great  as  a  sea- 
power.  It  may  be  asserted  that  a  great  development 
of  the  State  without  the  sea  is  in  the  long  run  im- 
possible. Every  State  that  calls  itself  great,  whose 
endeavour  it  is  to  stand  upon  its  own  feet,  must  have 
a  coast.  Only  by  means  of  it  is  it  really  free.  That 
is  so  evident  that  whole  epochs  of  history  can  be 
explained  from  this  one  circumstance.  The  key  to 
the  opposition  between  Poland  and  Germany  is  to  be 
found  here.  When  German  colonization  had  proceeded 
so  far  to  the  east  along  the  coast,  while  the  hinterland 
remained  Slavonic,  a  deadly  enmity,  which  no  one 
could  prevent,  was  the  result  Poland  was  obliged  to 
endeavour  to  win  for  herself  the  mouths  of  her  streams; 
the  Germans  on  their  side  could  not  permit  that  A 
geographical  opposition  was  thereby  produced,  which 
did  not  admit  of  alteration.  Every  young,  rising  nation 
presses  forward  remorselessly  towards  the  sea-coast  As 
soon  as  the  Hungarians  had  carried  through  their 
dualism  in  1867,  the  first  thing  they  did  was  to 
demand  for  themselves,  and  to  obtain,  too,  from  the 
weakness  of  Austria,  the  old  land  on  the  sea-coast; 
thus  Hungary  got  her  port  of  Fiume. 

In  all  this  there  lies  a  natural  compulsion.  The 
sea  has  an  invigorating  effect  on  all  the  customs  of  a 
people ;  in  the  case  of  seafaring  nations  complete  want 


50        SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  STATE    [BK.  n 

of  freedom  can  only  be  found  as  an  exception.  There 
is  hardly  any  calling  practised  by  men  which  rejects 
all  inefficiency  so  thoroughly  as  that  of  the  sailor; 
that  is  why  human  energy  can  prosper  so  freely  in  this 
calling.  It  breeds  an  essentially  democratic  view  of 
things  that  inquires  and  judges  by  what  is  achieved 
alone.  If  we  compare  Sparta  and  Athens  we  see  clearly 
how  the  sea-power  of  Athens  reacted  upon  the  whole 
character  of  the  State;  in  contrast  to  Sparta,  which 
always  remained  inland  and  never  obtained  a 
spiritually  free  horizon. 

Our  stick-in-the-mud  conditions  in  Germany  have 
been  the  fault  principally  of  the  purely  inland  policy 
of  the  house  of  Hapsburg.  Wallenstein  appears  in 
this  connection  like  a  meteor ;  he  was  an  inspired 
genius,  who  certainly  conceived  the  thought  of  making 
a  German  seaport  out  of  the  bay  of  the  Jahde  and  of 
excavating  a  canal  between  the  North  Sea  and  the 
Baltic.  Germany  has,  it  must  be  admitted,  been  cared 
for  by  Nature  in  stepmotherly  fashion.  The  Baltic 
bears  overwhelmingly  the  character  of  an  inland  sea. 
This  can  be  recognized  from  the  fact  that  the  effect  of 
the  sea  upon  the  people  who  dwell  beside  it  is  very 
small.  A  few  leagues  from  the  coast  in  Pomerania 
one  hardly  guesses  that  one  is  near  the  sea.  The  North 
Sea  has  the  worst  shore  imaginable  in  Germany  because 
of  the  sand-flats.  The  whole  is  as  unfavourable  as 


§  6]  COUNTEY  AND  PEOPLE  51 

possible ;  but  even  here  can  be  seen  how  man  is  able 
to  overcome  natural  obstacles.  This  Germany  with 
its  forbidding  coast-line  was  yet  once  on  a  time  the 
leading  sea-power,  and,  please  God,  it  shall  become 
so  again. 


The  territories  drained  by  great  rivers  are  usually 
centres  of  civilization.  Even  in  the  most  ancient  times 
it  followed  the  great  streams,  the  Hoang-ho  and  Yang- 
tse-kiang,  the  Indus,  Ganges  and  Nile.  Germany, 
otherwise  treated  by  Nature  in  such  stepmotherly 
fashion,  is  in  this  instance  to  be  called  fortunate — if  it 
ever  fulfils  its  mission,  if  it  one  day  possesses  its  stream 
entire.  Our  Khine  remains  the  king  of  all  rivers. 
What  great  thing  has  ever  happened  on  the  Danube  ? 
On  the  contrary,  on  the  Rhine,  wherever  we  go,  there 
is  historical  life  in  plenty.  From  the  oldest  days  of 
the  Germans  up  to  the  most  modern  times,  what  a 
wealth  of  historical  reminiscences!  The  French,  or  even 
the  Italians,  cannot  excel  us  in  this.  It  is  an  infinitely 
precious  natural  possession,  but  through  our  own  fault 
the  part  that  is  of  most  material  value  has  come  into 
foreign  hands,  and  it  is  an  indispensable  task  of 
German  policy  to  win  back  the  mouths  of  the  stream. 
A  purely  political  union  is  not  necessary,  for  the  Dutch 
have  now  developed  into  an  independent  nation ;  but 


52        SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  STATE    [BK.  n 

an  economic  alliance  is  indispensable.  And  we  are 
much  too  shy  if  we  do  not  venture  to  declare  that  the 
entrance  of  Holland  into  our  Customs  Union  is  as 
necessary  to  us  as  our  daily  bread.  Nowhere  in  the 
world  is  there  so  much  declaiming  by  fools  about 
Chauvinism  as  in  Germany,  and  nowhere  is  there  so 
little  Chauvinism  as  with  us.  We  fear  to  give  ex- 
pression to  the  most  natural  claims  that  a  nation  can 
have. 


The  configuration  of  the  boundary  of  the  State 
is  at  the  present  day  more  important  than  at  any 
previous  epoch  of  history.  To  be  able  to  concentrate 
forces  on  the  frontier  is  an  immeasurable  advantage 
in  an  age  of  wars  in  mass.  Undoubtedly,  the  sea  is 
the  most  fortunate  frontier  that  a  country  can  have. 
The  desire  of  all  States  for  self-preservation  explains 
the  fact  that  the  high  seas  are  considered  as  quite 
free;  on  the  other  hand,  every  State  polices  the  sea 
facing  its  coast-line,  so  far  as  it  can  dominate  it  in  a 
military  sense,  that  is,  within  cannon-range.  It  has, 
indeed,  become  doubtful  what  is  to  be  understood  by 
this,  but  new  arrangements  will  be  come  to  regarding 
it.  On  the  whole  it  will  be  established  that  on  the 
sea  the  power  of  the  State  ceases  where  its  physical 
force  ceases.  The  sea  does  not  only  separate,  it  also 


§6]  COUNTRY  AND  PEOPLE  53 

unites  all  nations ;  therefore  the  sea-coast  is  the  most 
advantageous  politically,  as  the  position  of  England 
shows  very  clearly.  Of  course,  a  wholly  insular  posi- 
tion may  also  lull  a  nation  into  a  dangerous  feeling  of 
security  and  detract  from  its  military  strength. 


In  every  case  in  judging  the  climate  and  the  other 
natural  conditions  of  a  country  the  question  turns,  in 
the  first  place,  upon  the  conditions  of  material  life 
which  result  therefrom.  The  moral  and  the  purely 
aesthetic  take  the  second  place.  But  the  latter  must 
not  on  that  account  be  undervalued.  The  misty,  foggy 
climate  has  had  a  by  no  means  favourable  effect  upon 
the  inhabitants  of  England ;  in  London  there  are  times 
when  in  a  thick  fog  the  spleen  lies  in  the  air.  Besides, 
the  country  lacks  wine,  and  wine  is  undeniably  an 
important  factor  in  a  cheerful,  liberal  culture.  If  our 
Rhenish  country-folk  boast  with  pride  that  they  have 
wine  in  their  bones,  they  are  in  a  certain  sense  quite 
justified.  A  drink  that  only  intoxicates  slightly,  and 
does  not,  like  brandy,  produce  a  bestial  drunken- 
ness, enlivens  and  relieves  the  mind.  It  will  never 
be  possible  for  a  true  Rhinelander  to  become  accus- 
tomed to  the  beer-tippling  which  prevails  among  us 
here. 

The  climate,  the  lack  of  wine  and  of  beauty  of 


54        SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  STATE    [BK.  n 

scenery  have  indisputably  had  an  unfavourable  effect 
upon  English  culture.  While  the  English  can  exhibit 
a  truly  great  literature,  they  have  never  achieved  any- 
thing outstanding  in  music  or  in  the  fine  arts ;  poetry, 
in  particular,  is  much  less  dependent  upon  these  natural 
conditions  than  the  fine  arts  or  music.  In  fact,  there 
is  even  a  beauty  and  majestic  elevation  of  Nature  that 
oppresses  men.  What  example  of  artistic  greatness 
has  proceeded  from  the  magnificent  Alpine  countries  ? 
Relatively  very  little.  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide, 
if  he  really  came  thence,  would  be  the  only  great  poet 
that  the  Tyrol  has  brought  forth ;  and  even  Switzer- 
land has  only  lately  produced  a  true  poet  in  Gottfried 
Keller.  It  has  always  been  the  case  that  a  country 
of  lofty  mountains  has  only  by  way  of  exception  been 
the  seat  of  higher  culture.  There  simple  conditions 
exist,  heroic  jager-natures,  men  for  the  most  part 
sturdy  and  well  built,  but  also  of  limited  outlook.  On 
the  contrary,  countries  with  mountains  of  moderate 
height,  like  the  charming  valleys  of  Suabia  and  Fran- 
conia  and  the  friendly  chains  of  green  heights  of 
Thuringia,  have  produced  a  multitude  of  poets  and 
artists.  He  who  does  not  feel  poetically  inclined  in 
Heidelberg  or  in  Bonn  is  lost  to  poetry  altogether. 
There  Nature  has  an  elevating  and  gladdening  effect, 
without  oppressing  men. 


§6]  COUNTRY  AND  PEOPLE  55 

The  English  are  the  most  fortunate.  The  popula- 
tion of  this  little  island  has  thrown  out  so  many  shoots 
that  there  are  already  at  the  present  time  more  than 
a  hundred  millions  of  people  of  English  descent.  In 
this  fact  alone  is  the  importance  of  colonies  revealed. 
A  nation  which  seeks  to  acquire  new  realms  of  ex- 
ploitation, in  order  to  be  able  to  support  its  growing 
population,  shows  the  courage  of  its  confidence  in  God. 
The  contemptuous  way  in  which  these  deeply  serious 
things  are  discussed  at  the  present  time  is  simply 
appalling.  People  sing  a  new  song  to  the  old  tune : 
"  Be  smaller,  fatherland  of  mine!"  That  is  simply  turn- 
ing the  world  upside-down.  We  wish  and  ought  to  take 
our  share  in  the  domination  of  the  world  by  the  white 
race.  We  have  still  an  infinite  deal  to  learn  from 
England  in  this  connection,  and  a  press  that  tries  to 
dismiss  these  serious  things  with  some  poor  jokes 
shows  that  it  has  no  suspicion  whatever  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  our  tasks  of  civilization.  It  is  a  healthy  and 
normal  phenomenon  when  a  civilized  nation  anticipates 
the  obvious  dangers  of  over-population  by  colonization 
on  a  large  scale.  There  is  no  mutilation  of  Nature 
practised  here,  and  a  wide  field  for  healthy  activity  is 
opened  up,  which  at  the  same  time  increases  the 
national  strength  of  the  mother  country.  For  all  talk 
of  possible  separation  of  the  colonies  is  folly,  when  one 
observes  what  even  separated  colonies  still  mean  for 


56        SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  STATE    [BK.  n 

the  mother  country.  The  material  and  moral  benefits 
of  such  an  increase  of  the  nation  cannot  possibly  be 
estimated  sufficiently  highly. 


§  7.   The  Family. 

In  the  nineteenth  century,  on  the  contrary,  rough, 
masculine  customs  again  appear.  A  worship  of  woman 
in  theory,  along  with  boorishness  in  practice,  is  the 
characteristic  of  our  time.  Through  the  unnatural 
lateness  of  marriages  prostitution  has  become  so  exten- 
sive, and  flaunts  itself  with  such  impudence,  that  even 
the  tone  of  intercourse  in  society  has  been  vitiated  by 
it.  Thence  the  unfortunate  idea  of  an  emancipation 
of  women.  If  woman  believes  she  is  able  to  make  an 
impression  upon  us  in  daily  intercourse  by  masculine 
means,  if  she  seeks  to  impress  us  by  terrifying  looks, 
it  has  the  opposite  effect,  and  the  social  boorishness 
arises  that  has  gained  so  strong  a  hold  at  the  present 
time.  There  is  no  merit  in  being  polite  to  a  pretty 
young  girl,  that  is  the  natural  impulse ;  but  the  truly 
refined  man  is  recognized  by  his  ability  to  be  polite  to 
an  old  lady.  And  now  look  into  any  omnibus  you 
please  and  see  how  the  men  behave  to  old  ladies ! 

In  England  family  life  has  always  been  very  healthy. 
The  Englishman  shows  great  respect  to  women  even 


§  7]  THE  FAMILY  57 

formally ;  the  position  of  woman  in  society  has  every 
liberty,  without  becoming  undisciplined.  Add  to  this 
the  aristocratic  right  of  heredity,  which,  not  of  course 
because  of  the  law,  but  rather  because  of  an  entail 
which  recurs  as  a  matter  of  custom,  restricts  the 
inheritance  almost  entirely  to  the  eldest  son.  Thus 
rich  heiresses  are  a  rarity  among  the  higher  classes  in 
England,  and  most  marriages  are  really  marriages  of 
inclination ;  and,  as  from  such  in  the  end  the  strongest 
children,  morally  and  physically,  proceed,  they  are  to 
be  looked  upon  as  a  blessing  for  State  and  society. 
These  are  comparatively  healthy  conditions,  only 
spoiled  recently  by  bluestockingdom  and  the  doctrine 
of  emancipation. 


Experiments  have  been  made  in  Canada  recently 
with  female  suffrage,  which  can  only  be  characterized 
as  flippancy.  They  were  only  attempted  because  people 
said  to  themselves :  "  This  is  a  stratagem,  in  order  to 
win  the  masses."  In  the  exercise  of  this  right  by 
women  there  are  only  two  alternatives  possible.  Either 
the  wife  or,  it  may  be,  the  daughter  votes  as  the 
husband  and  father,  and  thereby  an  unwarranted 
privilege  is  granted  to  married  men — or  wife  and 
daughter  are  good-for-nothings ;  then  they  vote  against 
the  man,  and  thus  the  State  carries  its  dispute  in 


58        SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  STATE    [BK.  n 

frivolous  fashion  right;  into  the  peace  of  the  home,  the 
very  place  where  we  should  rest  from  the  noise  of 
political  life. 


§  8.  Races,  Stocks,  Nations. 

We  Germans  are  to-day  in  an  unfortunate  position. 
The  time . . .  has  come  for  the  sub-German  peoples  to 
begin  to  awake  to  self-assertion.  That  is  justified  to 
a  certain  extent.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  be- 
haviour of  Peter  the  Great  towards  the  Kussians  was 
violent.  If  one  is  Eussian  oneself,  and  considers  that 
somewhat  higher  than  Germanism,  the  reaction  that 
has  set  in  to-day  is  intelligible.  Every  nation  is  in 
the  habit  of  overrating  itself.  Without  this  self- 
assertion  a  nation  would  lack  public  spirit  as  well. 
Fichte  says  quite  correctly :  "  A  nation  cannot  possibly 
keep  from  pride."  That  is  true  also  of  small  nations ; 
they  are  accustomed  to  exhibit  the  greater  pride  the 
less  merit  they  have  to  show.  Germanism  in  the 
Baltic  provinces  had  protected  itself  by  special  local 
privileges,  as  the  Poles  in  Posen  had  their  separate 
rights.  But  the  Germans  in  Livonia  have  never  for- 
feited their  rights  by  rebellion,  they  have  always  been 
the  most  loyal  subjects  possible ;  the  Czar  has  never 
had  such  faithful  subjects.  Furthermore,  these  German 


§8]  RACES,  STOCKS,  NATIONS  69 

Baltic  provinces,  intrinsically  harmless  for  Czardom, 
were  invaluable  for  the  culture  of  the  Russian  empire. 
The  number  of  natives  who  have  rendered  important 
service  in  the  employment  of  the  Russian  State,  in  the 
army  and  the  civil  service,  is  simply  legion.  Russia 
had  also  a  thousand  grounds  for  sparing  Germanism 
there,  especially  because  it  did  not  cultivate  propaganda 
at  all.  Now  she  has  taken  from  them  their  old  aristo- 
cratic constitution,  and  is  trying  to  squeeze  them  down 
by  force  into  the  democratic  pap  of  despotic  Russia; 
for  democratic  despotism  is  the  distinguishing  mark  of 
the  Russian  empire.  This  attempt  to  un-Germanize  a 
German  country,  which  as  a  neighbouring  country  has 
brought  nothing  but  blessing  to  the  Russian  State,  is 
undeniably  barbarism.  If  these  inhabitants  of  the 
Baltic  provinces  had  not  happened  to  be  Germans, 
bearers  of  a  higher  culture ;  if  they  had  not  deserved 
so  much  of  the  State,  we  should  have  been  obliged  to 
overlook  the  many  ruthless  steps  of  the  Russian  execu- 
tive power. 


Then,  however,  the  Jews  cease  to  be  necessary ;  the 
Aryans  have  themselves  become  accustomed  to  the 
management  of  money.  And  now  all  that  is  dangerous 
in  this  people  becomes  prominent,  the  decomposing 
power  of  a  nation  which  assumes  the  mask  of  different 


60        SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  STATE    [BK.  n 

nationalities.  If  nations  had  self-knowledge,  even 
noble  Jews  would  be  obliged  to  confess  that  there  is  no 
room  left  nowadays  for  the  cosmopolitanism  of  Judaism; 
we  do  not  understand  of  what  further  use  to  the  world 
an  international  Judaism  can  be.  Here  we  must  speak 
openly,  undisturbed  by  the  fact  that  the  Jewish  press 
befouls  what  is  pure  historical  truth.  It  can  ho  longer 
be  disputed  that  Judaism  can  only  play  a  part  if  its 
members  decide  to  become  Germans,  Frenchmen,  or 
Englishmen,  and,  with  the  reservation  of  old  associa- 
tions, become  merged  with  the  nation  to  which, 
according  to  public  law,  they  belong.  That  is  the 
perfectly  moderate  and  just  demand  that  we  Westerners 
have  to  make ;  no  nation  can  permit  the  Jews  to  have 
a  double  nationality. 

But  the  circumstances  are  so  involved  because  we 
have  no  sure  standard  by  which  to  compare  the  Jews 
who  have  become  merged  into  the  foreign  nationality 
with  the  others.  Baptism  alone  does  not  do  this. 
There  are  unbaptized  Jews  who  are  good  Germans — I 
myself  have  known  such  Jews — and  on  the  other  hand 
baptized  Jews  who  are  not ;  legally,  therefore,  we  are 
in  a  difficult  position.  If  the  legislature  wished  to 
treat  the  Jews  simply  as  guests,  permitting  them  to 
exercise  civil  trades,  but  giving  them,  on  the  other 
hand,  no  political  or  magisterial  rights,  that  would  be 
an  injustice,  because  this  would  not  reach  those  we 


§  8]  RACES,  STOCKS,  NATIONS  61 

are  aiming  at.     He  who  is  baptized  a  Christian  cannot 
be  looked  upon  as  a  Jew ;    every   legislature  must 
insist  on  that.     So  far  I  see  absolutely  only  one  means 
that  we  can  employ  here :  real  energy  of  our  national 
pride,  which  must  become  a  second  nature  with  us,  so 
that  we  involuntarily  reject  everything  that  is  strange 
to  the  Germanic  nature.     That  holds  good  of  all  and 
sundry ;  it  holds  good  visiting  of  theatres  and  music- 
halls  as  well  as  of  newspaper-reading.     Where  there  is 
Jewish   filth   soiling  our  life  the  German  must  turn 
away,  and  he  must  accustom  himself  to  speak  theV 
truth  straight  out.     If  we  see  an  unclean  anti-Semitism  \    ) 
springing  up,  the  moderate  parties  are   to  blame  for  / 
that. 


§  9.  Castes,  Orders ,  Classes, 

In  judging  of  the  historical  position  of  the  nobility 
among  the  different  nations  of  Europe  we  must  pre- 
serve an  open  mind  in  order  not  to  admire  foreign 
institutions  blindly.  Thus  the  English  nobility  is 
admired  by  our  Conservatives;  and,  considered  in  a 
purely  social  light,  it  has  indeed  an  excellent  organiza 
tion.  Only  the  eldest  son  of  the  family  is  considered 
noble ;  that  helps  to  keep  the  nobility  rich  and  take 
away  a  certain  odium  from  them.  His  distinguished 


62        SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  STATE    [BK.  n 

social  position  has  apparently  in  this  case  nothing  that 
offends,  as  the  other  sons  sink  back  into  the  "commons." 
When  we  hear  it  stated  thus,  it  seems  an  excellent 
organization ;  the  only  question  is  whether  we 
Germans,  with  our  different  moral  and  social  ideas, 
can  adopt  it  as  it  stands.  Frederick  William  IV., 
it  is  true,  attempted  it ;  after  a  few  months,  still  in  the 
first  year  of  his  reign,  he  was  obliged  to  withdraw  the 
decrees,  because  a  widespread  opinion  protested  against 
them.  The  king's  main  idea  was  that  the  nobility  should 
consist  of  great  landowners  alone,  and  that  only  those 
who  inherited  the  land  should  belong  to  the  nobility  ; 
but  not  the  younger  sons  who  had  no  land.  With  us 
Germans,  however,  the  family  feeling  is  so  strong  that 
we  feel  it  to  be  an  injustice  if  the  younger  son  does 
not  occupy  the  same  social  position  as  the  elder. 
Against  such  views  there  is  absolutely  nothing  to  be 
done.  It  is  not  true  that  one  who  has  an  estate  would 
be,  in  the  eyes  of  our  civilian  society,  so  much  more  of 
a  gentleman  than  his  brother  who  has  none.  At  the 
present  time  the  respect  for  the  ownership  of  land  has 
sunk  much  deeper,  since  so  many  obviously  un-noble 
elements  have  acquired  great  nobles'  estates. 


If  we  look  more  closely,  it  is  clear  that  in  Germany 
also  the  bluest  blood  of  the  nobility  is  political  in  the 


§  9]  CASTES,  ORDEKS,  CLASSES  63 

highest  degree.  In  a  certain  sense  we  must  say  that 
no  country  in  the  world  has  so  illustrious  a  nobility  as 
we  have.  That  the  order  of  German  princes  is,  pro- 
perly speaking,  only  a  high  order  of  nobility,  has  been 
evident  since  we  have  had  an  empire.  This  nobility 
need  fear  no  comparison.  The  lower  order  of  nobility 
is  monarchic — that  part  of  it  which  is  worth  anything. 
That  is  why  the  Prussian  nobility  stands  so  high 
morally ;  these  very  Prussian  Junkers  of  ill  repute  are 
the  best  elements  of  the  German  nobility.  Every  one 
who  is  at  home  in  the  small  German  States  knows 
that.  In  Prussia  the  Junkers  have  so  long  been 
obliged  to  learn  to  be  subjects  that  they  find  their 
glory  in  the  service  of  the  Crown.  They  had  first  to 
be  humbled  by  the  royal  power,  but  after  that  they 
accommodated  themselves  to  circumstances.  The 
families  of  small  nobles,  on  the  contrary,  in  Saxony 
and  Bavaria  have  always  had  something  of  the 
parasite  about  them ;  they  wish  to  rise  by  means  of 
the  Court  like  the  French  Court-nobles. 


If  we  look  down  into  the  lowest  stratum  of  society, 
which  is  designated  nowadays  the  fourth  order,  we  are 
confronted  by  the  remarkable  phenomenon  that  these 
great  masses  on  the  one  hand  contain  the  worst 
elements  of  society — it  cannot  be  otherwise;  there  must 


64        SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  STATE    [BK.  n 

be  a  lowest  stratum  in  the  life  of  every  civilized  people 
which  embraces  everything  that  cannot  keep  itself 
above  it — and  these  same  classes  at  the  same  time 
carry  within  themselves  the  rejuvenating  and  vivifying 
energies  of  all  nationality.  Every  nation  is  rejuvenated 
from  below  upwards ;  such  is  the  complicated  inter- 
change between  the  classes,  that  the  outworn  elements 
sink  from  above  downwards,  while  on  the  other  side 
the  young  and  rejuvenating  elements  ascend  from 
below.  No  one  knew  that  better  than  that  glorious 
man,  whom  narrow-minded  Liberals  always  call  an 
aristocrat,  Goethe.  If  real  democracy  consists  in  the 
love  of  mankind,  then  Goethe  is  a  democratic  poet. 
How  truly  has  he  said :  "  Those  whom  we  call  the 
lowest  class  are  certainly  for  God  the  highest  class  of 
men."  In  these  simple  conditions  of  life  there  are 
preserved  among  good  men  a  simple  strength  and 
purity  of  feeling,  which  are  so  easily  lost  among  the 
refined. 

Long  ago  Aristotle  described  the  position  of  this 
class  in  the  State  with  antique  hardness  of  heart  but 
with  essential  correctness :  "  They  are  content  if  they 
are  permitted  to  occupy  themselves  with  their  own 
affairs."  Necessity  and  sweat  in  daily  life  are  the 
most  real  things  for  these  masses  who  work  with  their 
hands.  They  wish  to  be  in  a  tolerable  position 
economically;  the  ideal  energies,  of  which  they  are 


§  9]  CASTES,  ORDERS,  CLASSES  65 

capable,  exhibit  themselves  in  two  directions:  in  a 
profound  religious  sentiment  and  on  the  other  hand  in 
delight  in  military  heroism.  Who  can  picture  to  him- 
self Jesus  or  Martin  Luther  otherwise  than  as  the 
children  of  poor  parents  ?  Such  religious  geniuses  only 
arise  in  the  lowest  ranks  of  society.  The  aristocrat 
must  use  violence  upon  his  accustomed  views  of  life 
in  order  to  come  round  to  the  view  that  we  are  all 
God's  children.  But  this  feeling  will  exist  very 
strongly  among  more  humble  and  upright  people,  if 
their  feelings  are  sound. 

There  lives,  further,  in  the  common  man  a  healthy, 
martial  feeling  of  honour  ;  a  delight  in  heroism  lies  in 
his  blood.  If  we  seek  for  the  truly  national  heroes  of 
history,  the  very  highest  fame,  that  unseals  the  lipe 
of  tradition,  has  nearly  always  been  apportioned  to  the 
heroes  of  war  and  of  religion.  The  statesman  proper, 
on  the  other  hand,  will  never  be  popular.  There  is 
only  one  exception  to  that  rule  and  it  is  an  apparent 
one.  It  is  Prince  Bismarck.  He,  however,  lives  in 
the  memory  of  the  people  as  a  soldier  hero,  as  the  iron 
man  with  the  yellow  collar  of  the  Magdeburg  cuiras- 
siers ;  the  fancy  of  the  great  masses  pictures  Moltke 
and  Bismarck  together  as  the  men  who  had  waged 
the  wars  against  Austria  and  France.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  otherwise  universally  the  case  that  heroes 
of  war  and  of  religion  are  the  really  popular  heroes ; 


66        SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  STATE    [BK.  n 

and,  when  we  know  uhat,  we  understand  how  the  dis- 
contented masses  are  to  be  treated.  The  first  thing  is 
the  satisfaction  of  their  domestic  cares;  and  then  it 
concerns  us  to  work  upon  their  oppressed  minds  with 
the  powers  of  the  promise  that  only  religion  offers. 
We  must  in  every  possible  way  promote  and  culti- 
vate the  manly  courage  and  the  religious  sentiment, 
which  are  powerful  among  the  lower  classes.  There- 
fore the  national  armies  are  a  real  blessing.  To 
no  one  is  religion  more  indispensable  than  to  the 
common  man.  The  unbelieving  man  of  culture  must 
not  actually  repudiate  the  moral  law,  but  the  un- 
refined man  will  lose  all  morality  along  with  his 
faith. 


§  10.  Religion. 

If  we  look  at  matters  in  this  way,  it  is  evident, 
that  the  world  of  religious  sentiment  is  so  entirely 
separated  from  the  raw  atmosphere  of  the  life  of  the 
State,  that  a  full  understanding  can  never  supervene 
here.  Keligious  truths  are  truths  of  the  mind,  true  as 
nothing  else  is  for  the  believing,  but  altogether  non- 
existent for  the  unbelieving.  Childhood,  which  lives  for 
the  future,  and  old  age  with  its  quiet  contemplative- 
ness  are  especially  accessible  to  the  promises  of  religion; 


§  10]  RELIGION  67 

to  the  female  mind,  also,  the  profound  unrest  of  an 
existence  without  religion  is  unbearable.  In  the  life 
of  the  State,  however,  it  is  above  all  the  men  who 
decide;  they  are  the  rulers  here.  The  State  is 
guided  not  by  emotions,  but  by  calculating,  clear 
experience  of  the  world ;  religion  wishes  to  know  only 
what  it  believes,  the  State  to  believe  only  what  it 
knows.  In  the  ecclesiastical  community  the  subjec- 
tive conviction  of  the  believing  conscience  is,  simply, 
everything.  The  ideal  of  a  religious  fellowship  is  the 
republic.  Its  constitution  must  be  so  framed,  that 
the  changing  conviction  of  the  community  may  find 
expression :  thus  in  this  case  again  the  Evangelical 
Church  stands  above  the  Catholic.  It  is  the 
other  way  about  in  the  State.  It  is  in  the  first 
instance  power;  and  undoubtedly  its  ideal  is  the 
monarchy,  because  in  it  the  power  of  the  State  ex- 
presses itself  in  an  especially  decided  and  consistent 
way. 


§  1 1.   The  Education  of  the  People. 

It  remains  to  be  insisted  upon,  that  the  elementary 
school  must  give  what  is  positive,  and  that  lie  re  all 
education  must  rest  upon  a  religious  foundation.  Thus 
uniformity,  not  a  blend,  is  undoubtedly  the  standard. 


68        SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  STATE    [BK.  n 

It  does  not  follow  from  this  that  undenominational 
schools  are  to  be  rejected  in  every  case.  In  the 
Polish  provinces  they  are  necessary,  in  order  to  pro- 
mote Germanism.  We  must  make  German  education 
supreme  there;  but  a  purely  Catholic  school  means 
in  Poland  and  West  Prussia  a  Polish  school.  He, 
who  will  not  see  that,  sacrifices  great  and  real  in- 
terests of  the  German  nation  to  love  of  an  abstract 
theory. 


It  will  always  remain  an  established  fact  that  in- 
struction in  Latin  and  Greek  cannot  be  replaced  by 
anything  else  whatever.  The  classical  languages  have 
a  wealth  of  German  inflections,  such  as  the  modern 
languages  no  longer  possess  ;  English,  so  worn  down  is 
it,  has  no  longer  any  inflections  of  the  noun.  Another 
advantage  of  those  languages  is  that  usage  no  longer 
causes  any  changes  in  them.  Here  the  rules  are  fixed, 
and  that  is  of  great  consequence  in  the  case  of  the 
undisciplined  youthful  mind ;  it  must  abide  by  a  fixed 
rule  laid  down.  Add  the  third  advantage,  that  the 
finest  literature  of  all  time  arose  in  Greece,  and  that 
the  Latin  language  possesses  a  logical  force  such  as  no 
other  in  the  world  does,  to  such  a  degree  that,  if  we 
wish  to  make  ourselves  particularly  clear  and  plain, 
we  must  construe  our  thoughts  in  a  Latin  form  of 


§11]         EDUCATION  OF  THE  PEOPLE  69 

speech.     Then  we  cannot  commit  any  more  errors  of 
thought. 


§12.  Domestic  Economy. 

But,  even  from  a  purely  theoretical  point  of  view, 
the  idea  is  quite  a  mistaken  one.  Not  uniformity,  but 
juxtaposition  of  large,  average  and  small  fortunes  is 
necessary  for  the  health  of  a  nation,  for  the  develop- 
ment in  every  direction  of  its  material  and  moral 
energies.  Very  small  fortunes  must  be  there;  otherwise 
the  workers,  whom  we  cannot  do  without  for  the  satis- 
faction of  our  physical  needs,  would  not  be  found  in 
sufficient  numbers.  There  must  be  middle  classes ;  in 
them  the  real  cream  of  the  nation  lies,  they  form  the 
principal  foundation  of  the  State,  But  even  moderate 
fortunes  are  not  sufficient  for  the  great  system  of 
credit,  and  the  huge  industrial  undertakings  of  our 
time,  which  require  large  capitals  in  the  hands  of 
individuals.  For  economical  production  large  capitals, 
when  they  are  in  the  right  hands,  are  every  whit  as 
necessary  as  a  working-class,  which  must  work  out  of 
necessity.  We  krfbw,  of  course,  that  the  conception 
of  necessity  is  fortunately  a  relative  one,  but  it  can 
never  die  out. 

These  are  unpopular  truths  at  the  present  time,  but 


70        SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  STATE    [BK.  n 

we  must  constantly  declare  them  anew,  for  it  is  estab- 
lished that  there  can  be  no  civilization  without  servants, 
night-watchmen,  etc.  Whence  follows  of  itself  that 
even  theory  must  wish  to  place  a  part  of  mankind  in 
such  a  position  that  they  consider  the  posts  of  servants 
and  night-watchmen  desirable.  He  who  has  eyes  to 
see  knows  that  it  must  remain  so,  and  shall  remain  so, 
for  all  futurity.  All  this  talk  of  an  equal  division  of 
all  property  is  therefore  absurd  from  the  first,  because 
men  are  alternately  dying  or  being  born  every  moment, 
and  because  no  standard  could  in  any  case  ever  be 
found  by  which  even  an  approximately  equal  division 
of  property  could  be  carried  out 


What  will  occupy  the  State  still  more,  however,  in 
the  most  immediate  future  is  the  too  great  power  of 
the  large  capital  in  its  appalling  degeneration.  A 
fortune  such  as  the  house  of  Kothschild  possesses  is  in 
every  sense  a  public  calamity.  There  can  in  this  case 
be  no  question  of  spending  the  interest;  thus  the  capital 
increases  rapidly,  and,  what  is  still  worse,  these  huge 
fortunes  are  mostly  cosmopolitan  and  contribute  very 
little  to  the  increase  of  any  nation's  prosperity.  The 
slow  draining  of  the  national  wealth  by  such  immense 
fortunes,  the  continuous  accumulation  of  the  money  in 
unworthy  hands,  which  we  can  observe  all  around  us 


§  12]  DOMESTIC  ECONOMY  71 

at  the  present  time :  these  are  phenomena  which 
certainly  open  out  a  very  gloomy  vista  into  the  future. 
It  is  very  easily  conceivable  that  the  State  will  one 
day  take  steps  against  this  unnatural  increase  of  the 
large  capital 


BOOK  III    THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE 
STATE 

§  13.   The  Forms  of  the  State. 

WE  to-day  have  a  very  rich  experience  of  monarchies, 
while  Aristotle  had  only  learned  to  know  a  few,  and 
some  of  these  far  from  exemplary.  We  may  therefore 
say  that  he  has  not  understood  the  monarchy,  as  the 
Hellenes  in  general  have  not  understood  it.  For  that 
reason  they  start  from  the  belief  that  the  essence  of 
the  monarchy  lies  in  the  government  of  one  man ;  then 
they  come  naturally  to  the  further  question :  "  How  is 
it  that  one  man  can  be  placed  so  high  above  all  others  ?" 
and  they  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  the  republic  is 
the  more  rational,  for  only  a  godlike  being  can  be 
exalted  above  all  men.  Aristotle  speaks  thus  also. 
Now,  that  is  an  entire  misconception.  We  should 
indeed  be  Byzantine  flatterers  if  we  tried  to  say  that 
our  dynasty  of  kings  was  intrinsically  superior  to  all 
the  other  families  in  the  country.  The  position  of  the 
Hohenzollerns  is  not  founded  upon  distinguished  per- 
sonal virtue  or  judiciousness,  but  their  superiority 


§13]          THE  FORMS  OF  THE  STATE  73 

consists  in  the  mere  fact  that  they  are  the  kings,  that 

they  stand  upon  their  own  right,  and  exercise  a  right    t'tr, 

of  sovereignty  which  is  not  disputed. 


§  14.   The  Theocracy. 

The  near  future  will,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  wipe  out  the 
disgrace  that  such  a  dominion  could  ever  establish 
itself  on  European  soil.  For  what  has  this  Turkish 
empire  achieved  in  three  full  centuries  ?  It  has  only 
destroyed.  They  have  rushed  in  over  the  West  like 
a  huge  avalanche  of  rubbish,  annihilating  everything. 
There  is  nothing  left  in  Hungary  from  the  hundred 
and  fifty  years  of  their  dominion  but  some  mutilations 
of  Christian  churches  and  the  warm  baths  in  Buda. 
We  know  that  it  lies  in  the  nature  of  Theocracy,  that 
it  cannot  develop  beyond  a  fixed  limit  How  splendidly 
did  the  civilization  of  the  Omayyads  flourish  in  Sj.  tin 
in  Cordova  and  Granada!  At  a  certain  point,  how- 
ever, it  too  began  all  at  once  to  become  torpid,  so  that 
the  ruder  Christian  stocks  of  the  north,  who,  neverthe- 
less, carried  within  themselves  the  Christian  capacity 
for  development,  gained  the  upper  hand.  The  Turks 
have  not  developed  at  all,  they  have  always  been,  by 
reason  of  their  inborn  hatred  of  thinking,  a  people  of 
soldiers,  and  indeed  of  great  brav  lL-h  we  must 


74  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE      [BK.  m 

admire.  That  is  just  the  misfortune,  that  a  people 
that  could  only  fulfil  its  mission  as  a  horde  of  horsemen 
has  been  brought  into  the  enlightenment  of  the  West. 
What  are  the  celebrated  mosques  but  imitations  of  the 
Hagia  Sophia  ?  The  Turks  have  only  copied  that 
Christian  temple.  Embroider  slippers  and  cover  marble 
palaces  with  a  kind  of  lace  veil :  these  things  they  can 
do;  and  they  understand  perfectly,  in  especial,  how  to 
decorate  with  ornaments  the  large  halls  of  state,  in 
which  the  harem  bathes ;  but  real  architecture  they 
lack  completely.  How  crazily  they  have  disfigured 
the  Hagia  Sophia,  that  wonderful  building  in  whose 
regular  forms  one  hears,  as  it  were,  the  rhythm  of  the 
proportions  making  music !  And  then,  if  we  enter, 
what  a  sight !  As  Mecca  lay  in  a  south-south-easterly 
direction,  they  have  moved  the  prayer-niches  away 
from  the  centre  a  great  distance  to  the  right.  And  all 
carpets,  all  church  furniture,  are  now  placed  obliquely 
and  turned  towards  that  corner :  we  have  the  impres- 
sion that  a  crowd  of  drunk  people  has  turned  every- 
thing upside-down.  That  is  the  way  in  which  Orientals 
meddle  with  the  Christian  world. 


Still  more  ridiculous  was  the  attempt  to  obtain  an 
entry  into  Turkey  for  the  constitutional  ideas  of 
Western  Europe.  The  presupposition  necessary  for 


§14]  THE  THEOCKACY  75 

a  constitutional  State  is  absolutely  lacking :  a  uniform 
nation.  The  population  does  not  consist  of  Ottomans, 
but  of  a  mixture  of  Mohamedans  and  Europeans. 
Turkey  is  incorrigible,  and  she  will  remain  so  in  spite 
of  all  the  much-lauded  promises  of  freedom.  We  only 
need  to  observe  how  outward  form  proceeds  in  such 
cases.  With  what  grotesque  ceremonies  was  the 
Hatti-sherif  of  Gulhane'  proclaimed  in  1839!  The 
Grand  Signior  appears,  and  all  those  assembled  throw 
themselves  on  their  bellies.  Then  the  Court  astrologer 
steps  forward  with  his  astrolabe  to  see  if  Allah  has 
sent  the  favourable  hour ;  and  as  Allah  has  said,  "It 
is  time,"  the  reading  of  the  great  charter  of  freedom 
begins.  Such  a  State  will  remain  what  it  was,  and 
since  something  of  the  old  lion  is  to  be  observed  even 
yet,  and  since  the  army  is  constantly  obtaining  fresh 
and  seasoned  strength  from  the  Asiatic  provinces,  it 
probably  will  remain  until  it  is  driven  out  of  Europe 
by  force.  Moltke,  who,  as  is  well  known,  was  also  in 
Turkey  as  a  Prussian  captain,  declared  this  so  long  as 
fifty  years  ago.  It  is  a  system  of  the  universe  which 
is  strange  to  us,  and  which  cannot  be  reformed  accord- 
ing to  European  ideas,  but  can  only  be  overthrown. 
The  best  picture  of  this  people,  which  hates  thinking, 
but  is  experienced,  because  of  long  practice,  in  the  art 
of  ruling,  is  furnished  to  us  by  the  dogs  of  Constan- 
tinople. They  are  brave,  harmless  animals ;  they  sleep 


76  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE      [BK.  m 

during  the  day,  and  at  night  they  perform  the  duty  of 
cleaning  the  streets  without  payment.  But  if  we  take 
one  of  these  dogs  into  our  house  and  try  to  train  him, 
he  dies  out  of  longing  for  his  accustomed  freedom. 
The  Ottoman  is  like  that.  Under  the  tent  in  the 
desert  he  was  in  his  place;  that  he  strayed  into  the 
restraint  of  civilization,  is  a  dispensation  that  can 
only  end  with  his  destruction. 


§  15.   The  Monarchy. 

In  contrast  to  the  theocracy,  the  monarchy  acknow- 
ledges the  secular  nature  of  all  executive  power.  Young 
nations,  it  is  true,  are  inclined  to  trace  their  kingship 
back  to  some  divine  descent ;  but  the  executive  power, 
once  established,  is  always  of  a  secular  character.  It 
is  even  conscious  of  this  itself  and  of  its  difference 
from  priesthood,  and  the  "  by  the  grace  of  God "  is 
only  an  expression  of  humility  and  piety.  No  mystic 
spiritual  power  is  meant  by  it,  but  it  is  to  be  recog- 
nized in  humility  that  it  is  an  unsearchable  dispensation 
of  Providence,  if  this  particular  family  has  raised  itself 
above  all  others  in  the  country.  The  monarchy,  of 
course,  has  need  of  devoutness  in  a  very  especial 
degree,  for  the  idea  that  he  stands  so  high  above  all 
other  men  may  actually  unsettle  the  brain  of  the  ruler, 


§  is]  THE  MONAECHY  77 

unless  he  is  filled  with  pious  humility  and  recog- 
nizes that  his  power  is  the  dispensation  of  God, 
and  that  he  must  submit  himself  to  this  dispensa- 
tion. But  all  this  does  not  invalidate  the  rule 
that  this  executive  power  is  secular  and  will  be 
secular.  The  truly  monarchical  State  does  not  put 
forward  the  claim  to  meddle  with  the  handiwork  of 
the  Godhead. 


It  lies,  moreover,  in  the  exalted  position  of  the 
monarch  to  see  further  than  ordinary  men.  The 
ordinary  man  surveys  only  a  small  circle  of  real  life. 
We  can  recognize  this  especially  clearly  in  the  involun- 
tary class- prejudices  of  the  average  man.  There  are 
prejudices  of  the  middle  classes  and  of  the  learned 
professions,  as  well  as  those  of  the  nobility ;  they  do 
not  see  the  whole  of  society,  but  only  a  small  section. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  clear  that  a  monarch  will  learn 
to  know  more  of  the  aggregate  of  the  national  life 
than  the  individual  subject,  and  that  he  is  in  a  position 
to  judge  the  relations  of  the  different  forces  in  society 
more  correctly  than  the  average  man  can.  This  is 
true  above  all  in  regard  to  foreign  countries.  The 
king  can  judge  much  more  clearly  how  things  really 
stand  in  the  world  without  than  the  individual  subject 
or  even  a  republican  party-government.  A  policy 


78  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE      [BK.  m 

reckoning  far  into  the  future  will  only  be  possible  foi 
him  who  really  stands  at  the  centre. 


. . .  Generally  speaking,  we  must  call  a  fixed  heredi- 
tary succession  a  conditio  sine  qua  non  of  the  monarchic 
form  of  the  State.  Add  to  this  that  we  see  certain 
peculiarities  of  character  to  be  hereditary  in  reigning 
families.  It  is,  of  course,  not  a  peculiarity  of  monarchic 
families  alone  to  remain  like  themselves  through  the 
centuries ;  it  is  the  case  everywhere.  On  the  whole, 
we  may  say  of  the  Hohenzollerns,  a  gifted  race,  showing 
strong  individual  diversities,  that  they  have  neverthe- 
less been,  with  few  exceptions,  simple  natures.  What 
a  plain,  homely  understanding,  always  seeing  what  lies 
near  at  hand,  does  Frederick  the  Great  display,  in 
spite  of  all  his  genius  !  Certain  views  become,  by 
reason  of  a  long  historical  experience,  the  habit  of  a 
ruling  family :  think  of  the  efforts  of  the  Hohenzollerns 
to  form  the  Union.  Originally  it  was  merely  a  make- 
shift, in  order  to  secure  themselves.  Through  his  going 
over  to  the  Reformed  faith  the  monarch  with  his  house 
had  joined  the  small  minority  ;  he  had  therefore  to  try 
to  find  a  meeting-ground  in  some  form  or  other. 

Undoubtedly,  there  also  lies  in  this  continuity  of 
family  inheritance  the  danger  of  monotony  and  tor- 
pidity. There  exist  such  unintellectual  reigning  families 


§15]  THE  MONARCHY  79 

that,  as  in  the  case  of  the  English  Georges,  we  can 
hardly  distinguish  one  king  from  the  other.  Or  look 
at  the  portraits  of  the  Hapsburg  rulers:  everywhere 
the  same  touch  of  spiritual  dulness  in  the  faces ;  they 
have  all  been  parson-kings.  The  house  of  Holstein  is 
also  remarkable  in  all  its  branches.  The  Oldenburg 
Holsteiners  can  only  be  distinguished  by  the  fact  that 
the  lower  Frederick  always  follows  the  higher  Christian. 
The  fourth  Christian  alone  was  able  to  unseal  the  lips 
of  the  Muse,  and  lives  on  in  the  lasting  remembrance 
of  his  people.  It  is  he  of  whom  the  national  anthem 
sings :  "  King  Christian  stood  by  the  lofty  mast." 
Nevertheless,  the  dynasty  was  loved  in  all  its  genera- 
tions. They  had  nothing  objectionable  in  all  their 
uniform  mediocrity. 

This  danger  of  torpidity  would  be  still  greater  for  the 
monarchy  if  human  nature  did  not  here,  as  everywhere, 
work  against  it  The  natural  opposition  between  the 
younger  and  older  generations,  which  is  found  in  all 
ranks  of  society,  shows  itself  particularly  strong  in 
these  high  places.  There  is  no  human  calling  which 
could  be  more  exposed  to  the  most  subtle  moral  temp- 
tations than  that  of  the  heir  to  the  throne  in  a  great 
empire.  It  is  an  old  experience  that  those  very 
monarchs  who  are  true  to  their  duty,  and  powerful, 
have  a  great  jealousy  of  their  successors :  they  do  not 
wish  to  let  him  who  comes  after  them  have  a  peep 


80  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE      [BK.  m 

into  the  kitchen.  The  Crown  Prince  was  always 
shoved  gently  aside  by  the  Emperor  William  I.  Being 
so  highly  placed,  and  as  a  rule  quite  without  influence, 
the  heir  is  provoked  to  criticism,  which  expresses  itself 
now  in  evil,  now  in  nobler  forms.  Never  yet  in  the 
case  of  the  Hohenzollerns  has  a  father  been  of  like 
mind  with  his  son.  That  is  the  corrective  which 
Nature  applies  in  this  instance,  fortunately  for  us, 
against  the  danger  of  one-sided  torpidity.  Therefore, 
monarchies  have  never  degenerated  into  so  great  a 
monot'  theocratic  States.  The  personality  of 

the  r  ;-idividuality  has  always  made  itself 

felt  auev.  ab  mating  influence. 


...  Of  monarchies  it  holds  good  in  the  highest  degree 
that  kings  may  themselves  become  their  own  worst 
enemies,  for  in  the  fact  that  a  single  man  is  placed 
so  high  above  all  mortals  there  lies  an  immense  temp- 
tation to  arrogance  of  all  kinds ;  there  is  an  imminent 
dan^  •  bat  the  personality  of  the  king  of  the  moment, 
w*  <r>rices  and  his  human  limitations,  may  be 

COL  ith  the  crown  itself,  and  that  thus  a  self- 

deifu  iy  arise  which  will  have  a  demoralizing 

effect  TV  thing  that  passes  through  the  mind 

of   si.  j   must    forthwith    become   law,   the 

monar  "  a  caricature  and  an  agitation  begins 


§15]  THE  MONARCHY  81 

among  all  noble,  free  spirits ;  and  such  monarchs  must 
then  rely  upon  their  enemies,  for  their  friends  forsake 
them.  On  the  other  hand,  in  this  event  also  it  very 
often  does  not  matter  what  the  monarch  is  in  reality, 
but  what  he  appears  to  be  to  his  people.  When  I 
consider  what  changes  have  come  about  in  impres- 
sions of  monarchs  in  my  lifetime  alone!  Frederick 
William  IV.  was  as  much  overrated  in  the  first  period 
of  his  reign  as  his  great  brother  was  underrated. 


If,  on  the  contrary,  the  king  is  profoundly  imbued 
with  the  consciousness  of  his  exalted  duty,  then  it  is 
glorious  to  see  how  the  high  office  educates  its  holder. 
What  examples  of  such  kingly  men  Prussia  possesses  in 
Frederick  II.  and  King  William !  Let  us  follow  the 
life  of  Frederick,  who  at  his  latter  end  was  the  greatest 
of  all  the  monarchs  of  the  earth.  At  first  he  was  still 
an  excitable  half-poet,  full  of  poetical  whims  and 
fancies,  always  with  a  tinge  of  sentimentalism  ;  on  the 
same  day  he  gives  the  order  for  the  inroad  into  Silesia 
and  celebrates  in  an  ode  the  quiet  peace  of  country 
life.  And  then  how  all  at  once  the  hero  in  him  breaks 
through,  and  thereafter  with  the  course  of  years  his 
kingly  sense  becomes  ever  stronger !  In  his  old  age 
he  lives  and  moves  entirely  in  the  thought  of  his 
States ;  all  personal  likes  and  dislikes  disappear  before 


82  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE      [BK.  m 

that.  In  his  last  period  he  becomes,  as  it  were, 
impersonal ;  he  now  thinks  only  of  exercising  the  justice 
of  the  king.  That  is  the  process  of  development  of  a 
monarch  of  a  grand  type.  In  Emperor  William  the 
like  is  to  be  observed.  And  the  evening  of  his  life  was 
more  cheerful  than  that  of  his  great  predecessor.  In 
his  last  years  he  appears  already  as  if  transfigured. 
What  did  he  still  wish  and  strive  for  for  himself  ? 
Nothing  whatever;  he  became  quite  identified  with 
the  idea  of  his  political  calling. 


Where  the  crown  is  in  tolerable  hands,  especially 
in  the  hands  of  thoroughly  modest  natures,  even  when 
they  are  moderately  gifted,  their  natural  inherent 
strength  will  be  shown  in  this  respect  also,  that  there 
will  exist  an  especially  good  understanding  between 
the  army  and  the  king.  In  the  army,  above  all, 
every  one  desires  a  final,  supreme,  unconditioned  will, 
and,  as  the  king  stands  above  all  social  oppositions, 
he  is  also  especially  well  fitted  to  realize  in  practice 
the  idea  of  the  power  of  the  State  by  means  of  his 
leadership  of  the  army.  The  king  is  the  born  leader 
of  the  army ;  and,  if  he  is  also  that  in  reality,  every 
one  has  the  feeling  that  the  monarchy  confronts  us  in 
its  finest  bloom  and  maturity.  The  organization  of 
the  army  is  undoubtedly  an  easier  task  for  the 


J15]  THE  MONARCHY  83 

monarchy  than  for  the  republic.  It  is  easier  to  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  a  visible  head  of  the  army  than 
to  an  abstraction.  Moreover,  the  king  can  use  this 
terrible  weapon,  the  army,  without  any  internal  danger 
to  the  State.  In  republics,  on  the  contrary,  the 
danger  is  always  threatening,  that  a  victorious  general 
may  misuse  the  army  for  selfish  political  aims.  Even 
in  Washington's  army  there  were  attempts  of  this 
kind.  In  the  France  of  to-day  things  are  quite  plain 
in  this  respect.  The  conqueror  of  Germany  would  at 
once  be  made  emperor  of  France.  Therefore  the 
republic  must  often  have  recourse  to  artificial  means ; 
Venice  in  her  later  period  had  always  foreign 
condottieri. 


§  16.   The  Older  Forms  of  the  Monarchy. 

. . .  Present-day  Russia  has  shown  us  that  in  that 
State  sheer  madness  is  still  possible.  Such  a  suicidal 
act  as  the  uprooting  of  Germanism  in  the  Baltic 
provinces  has  seldom  been  seen  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  These  Germans  were  only  too  faithful.  What 
a  part  they  have  played  in  Russian  history !  Almost 
one  out  of  three  of  the  famous  statesmen  or  generals 
of  Russia  has  been  a  native  of  the  Baltic  provinces. 
Besides,  there  are  the  ethnographical  conditions.  The 


84  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE      [BK.  m 

Baltic  provinces  are  not  German  at  all,  they  have  only 
a  thin  crust  of  German  patricians  and  noblemen  above 
the  mass  of  Lithuano-Finnish  original  inhabitants. 
Thus  in  their  case  a  revolt  of  the  Germans  was  not  to 
be  thought  of.  And  these  faithful  provinces,  to  which 
Russia  owes  so  much,  were  ill-treated  and  mutilated 
with  a  barbarity  without  parallel.  The  complete 
expulsion  of  the  Germans  from  Russia  is  indeed 
unthinkable,  for  then  the  work  of  the  State  would  not 
proceed ;  Russia  has  not  enough  capable  Muscovites. 
And  yet  there  is  this  raging  hatred  of  the  Germans. 
After  a  new  change  of  government  we  shall  perhaps 
experience  a  reversion  to  the  European.  But  in  such 
a  spasmodic  for  and  against  a  great  State  can  hardly 
proceed  permanently. 

The  recipe  of  the  German  liberals  for  all  abuses  is 
of  course  a  transition  to  constitutional  forms  of  the 
State.  Whether  it  will  come  to  this  some  day,  who 
can  prophesy  ?  But  a  constitution  would  be,  to  begin 
with,  a  very  doubtful  benefit.  Russia  requires  social 
reforms  before  everything  else.  Serfdom  must  be  quite 
abolished,  so  that  the  peasant  may  acquire  property ; 
the  wretched  system  of  national  education  must  be 
reformed  from  top  to  bottom.  Now,  if  the  question 
be  asked  :  "  Who  are  the  natural  enemies  of  these 
reforms  ? "  then  the  answer  is :  "  The  great  land- 
owners," But  a  Parliament  in  Russia  can  only  be 


§  16]    OLDER  FORMS  OF  THE  MONARCHY     85 

composed  of  great  landowners  and  some  representa- 
tives of  the  cities ;  it  would  thus  be  reactionary  in  the 
very  worst  sense,  and  would  only  restrain  Czardom. 
On  the  other  hand,  educated  Russians  had  the  feeling 
that  they  lacked  a  constitution  so  early  as  the  period 
from  1815  to  1830,  when  the  grand-duchy  of  Warsaw 
rejoiced  in  its  constitution,  and  likewise  later,  when 
the  small  Balkan  States,  which  Russia  had  helped 
to  separate  from  Turkey,  all  created  for  themselves 
the  most  delightful  national  representation  possible. 
Every  State  had  to  have  its  Skupshtina.  They  shoot 
and  thrash  one  another  there;  nevertheless  it  is 
proved  within  a  small  compass,  that  parliamentary 
forms  can  be  realized  even  among  Slavs  and  Wallachs. 
Thus  many  momenta  may  by  pressure  bring  about 
the  venturing  of  the  experiment  one  day  in  Russia, 
although  success  is  so  doubtful.  But  we  must  not 
underestimate  the  immense  vital  energy  of  the  Russian 
empire  even  in  its  present  condition.  A  capacity  for 
assimilation  of  the  very  highest  grade  is  a  universal 
characteristic  of  history  with  which  we  must  reckon. 
If  ever  any  State  had,  then  Russia  has  what  the 
Americans  call  a  great  destiny.  Its  civilizing  mission 
in  Asia  is  unmistakable,  and  there  it  has  huge  tasks 
still  to  accomplish.  The  danger  to  Europe  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  State  is  filled,  because  of  its  successes  in 
Asia,  with  a  consciousness  of  victory,  which  it  has  not 


86  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE      [BK.  in 

earned  at  all.  Its  frontiers  to  the  west  are  of  such  a 
kind  that  it  cannot  be  attacked  there.  There  has 
therefore  developed  among  the  Eussians  a  megalo- 
mania, which  wishes  to  appear  on  the  scene  in  the 
west  also,  as  conqueror  and  ruler.  The  fancy  of  a 
Russian  lieutenant  of  the  guard  does  not  stick  at  a 
little  military  promenade,  taking  one  part  of  the  army 
to  the  Hindus  and  the  other  over  Berlin  and  Vienna 
to  Constantinople. 

In  Asia  the  Russians  are  as  a  Caucasian  people, 
which,  however,  still  lives  at  the  same  time  under  half- 
oriental  forms  of  the  State,  the  true  bearers  of  civiliza- 
tion ;  in  Europe,  on  the  contrary,  Russia's  example 
teaches  us  as  clearly  as  day,  that  a  return  to  pure 
absolutism  is  no  longer  possible  in  any  country. 


§17.   The  Constitutional  Monarchy. 

If  we  sum  up  all  these  English  conditions,  then  we 
understand  how  Montesquieu  could  declare  that  the 
ruling  spirit  of  a  constitutional  monarchy  must  be  mis- 
trust ;  that  terrible  doctrine  which  would  base  a  noble 
form  of  the  State  upon  one  of  the  most  hateful 
impulses  of  man.  But  it  is  still  at  this  day  a  dogma 
of  all  radical  parties,  even  if  they  do  not  dare  to 
announce  it  in  plain  words.  And  even  my  dear 


§  17]    THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  MONAKCHY      87 

teacher  Dahlmann  said  that  political  freedom  in  consti- 
tutional States  had  perhaps  less  to  fear  from  mediocre 
monarchs  on  the  throne  than  from  the  genius  of  great 
men.  Thus  could  a  noble,  intelligent  man  speak,  as  if 
genius,  which  is  ever  a  blessing  from  Heaven,  must 
become  a  public  danger. 

Yet  it  is  quite  evident  that  we  cannot  wish,  even  if 
it  happened  to  be  possible,  to  transfer  to  other  States 
without  more  ado  a  kingship  ossified  by  peculiar 
historical  circumstances,  such  as  this  English  one. 
Healthy  human  reason  tells  us  that  these  political 
institutions  are  the  best,  which  achieve  most  in  the 
most  capable  hands.  He  who  maintains,  therefore, 
that  a  kingship  must  be  so  arranged  that  it  can  bear 
mediocrities  best,  is  talking  out  of  topsy-turvydom. 
The  whole  education  of  English  princes  is,  of  course, 
directed  towards  the  object,  which  it  has  attained  with 
wonderful  success,  that  the  hereditary  nullity  of  the 
house  of  Guelph  should  be  perpetuated.  None  of 
those  who  can  hope  for  the  throne  is  a  soldier  in  the 
full  sense  of  the  word.  And  things  are  already  so 
arranged  that  we,  without  being  prophets,  can  say  in 
advance  that  the  Guelph  hereditary  characteristics  will 
continue  in  the  next  two  generations  of  the  house  of 
Coburg.  They  belong  to  the  nature  of  the  English 
State;  but  we  Germans  do  not  wish  to  depart  from 
simple  human  intelligence,  and  do  not  wish  to  propose 


88  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE      [BK.  m 

to  our  nation  that  they  should  have  a  healthy  leg  cut 
off  and  exchange  it  for  a  wonderfully  executed  artificial 
one.  We  have  made  the  trial :  our  constitutional 
monarchy  is  of  such  a  nature  that  it  achieves  the  most 
under  great  monarchs.  The  constitutional  monarchy 
is  not  intended  to  rob  the  kingship  of  all  significance ; 
it  must  rather  keep  it  fresh  and  living  even  among  a 
politically  mature  people.  With  us  the  kingship  is 
almost  the  only  force  of  political  tradition  which 
unites  our  present  with  the  past:  shall  we  wish  for 
ourselves  English  Georges  instead  of  our  famous  house 
of  Hohenzollern  ?  We  have  such  a  proud  monarchic 
history  that  a  Prussian  may  well  say :  "  The  best 
monarch  is  just  good  enough  for  us."  According  to 
our  constitution,  the  monarch  alone  is  vested  with  the 
power  of  the  State;  and  he  who  maintains  the  con- 
trary must  prove  what  he  maintains  against  our 
constitution  on  the  basis  of  alien  and  peculiar  condi- 
tions which  have  become  historical. 


We  have,  of  course,  adopted  many  inessential  trifles 
from  England.  Thus  with  us  also  the  name  of  the 
king  must  not  be  mentioned  in  Parliament.  The 
English — they  have  always  been  great  in  such  kinds  of 
flattery — declared  that  the  name  of  the  king  should  no 
more  be  taken  in  vain  than  the  name  of  God.  The  will 


§  17]    THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  MONARCHY       89 

of  this  Guelph  royalty,  whose  first  representative  did 
not  understand  his  country's  language,  and  thus  could 
not  preside  at  any  council  of  ministers,  is  no  longer 
of  any  account;  it  matters  not  at  all  what  Queen 
Victoria  thinks  about  a  political  question.  And  that  is  to 
be  a  model  for  our  country,  where  the  king  understands 
German  very  well !  In  Germany  the  will  of  the  king 
still  means  something  very  real.  That  is  true  above 
all  of  Prussia,  which  alone  has  still  a  real  monarch, 
who  is  also  entirely  independent  of  any  higher  power. 
Here  a  minister  must  not,  in  presence  of  Parliament, 
hide  himself  like  a  coward  behind  the  monarch  ;  but,  if 
in  a  given  case  he  declares :  u  Don't  decide  that,  gentle- 
men ;  I  tell  you  beforehand  we  cannot  carry  it  with 
his  Majesty  " ;  if  a  minister  says  that,  it  is  impossible 
to  see  why  he  ought  not  to  have  said  it 


§  18.  Tyranny  and  Cassarbm. 

A  nation  which  takes  so  cowardly  a  view  of  the 
world  is  ripe  for  despotism.  The  reproach  of  passion 
for  novelty,  which  we  like  to  make  against  the  French, 
is,  if  we  look  more  closely,  little  justified  politically. 
In  France  things  have  not  altered  these  last  hundred 
years  so  much  as  with  us  in  Germany  ;  the  revolutions 
always  affected  the  heads  of  the  State  alone.  He  who 


90  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE      [BK.  m 

examines  impartially,  and  does  not  allow  himself  to  be 
deceived  by  phrases,  must  say  that  that  country  makes 
the  most  harmonious  impression,  as  regards  healthy 
State-development,  under  the  first  and  third  Napoleons. 
Nothing  is  said  against  Bonapartism  with  moral  catch- 
words. It,  and  not  the  present  state  of  the  bureau- 
cratic republic,  corresponds  undeniably  in  France  to 
the  laws  of  political  logic.  The  form  of  the  State  in 
that  country  is  still  based  upon  the  institutions  of  the 
First  Consul.  The  whole  sub-structure  of  the  State, 
the  fixed,  centralized  hierarchy  of  a  thoroughly  despotic 
officialdom,  which  takes  from  the  subjects  all  trouble 
of  self-administration,  and  permits  them  only  to  criticize 
and  pay  taxes,  and  at  the  worst  to  help  themselves  by 
a  revolution :  this  constitution  requires  also  a  despot 
at  the  head  of  it.  The  republic  has  only  lasted  because 
a  new  Bonaparte  who  shall  beat  the  Germans,  has  not 
yet  been  found. 


§  19.   The  Aristocratic  Republic. 

.W" 

There  is  a  strong  quality  of  energy,  of  majesty,  in 
the  whole  Venetian  organization.  The  king-craft  of 
that  city  is  unique,  the  wonderful  gifts,  the  penetrating 
knowledge  of  mankind  of  her  ambassadors ;  but  equally 
unmistakable  is  a  quality  of  contempt  for  mankind, 


§19]        THE  ARISTOCRATIC  REPUBLIC  91 

especially  for  all  men  of  talent  who  had  no  blue  blood 
in  their  veins.  That  was  the  real  canker  of  that 
aristocratic  republic,  that  it  did  not,  like  Rome,  reserve 
to  itself  the  possibility  of  admitting  homines  novi  into 
the  ruling  order.  In  earlier  times  capable  energies 
had  been  assimilated  from  outside ;  a  whole  series  of 
Venetian  families  was  originally  Dalmatian.  This 
shrewdness  was  quite  neglected  later;  in  the  end 
Venice  came  to  ruin  through  the  caste-like  isolation 
of  the  ever  decreasing  order  of  rulers,  the  intermarry- 
ing and  the  physical  and  moral  degeneration  which 
resulted  therefrom.  How  low  they  fell,  these  illus- 
trious houses !  A  typical  representative  of  the  utterly 
degenerate  nobility  is  the  last  doge  Manin.  What  a 
pitiful  part  he  played  when  Bonaparte  came  in  1797 
to  overturn  the  old  Queen  of  the  Adriatic  with 
what  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  kick !  That 
was  the  ignominious  fall  of  a  State  that  had 
once  ruled  the  whole  East.  Then,  when  in  1848 
great  historical  reminiscences  flared  up  once  more, 
when  the  republic  of  San  Marco  came  to  life  again  for 
a  short  time,  it  seemed  a  crowning  insult  of  Fate,  that 
a  Manin  again  appeared  at  its  head.  But  he  sprang 
from  one  of  the  small  Jew  families  of  Venice.  Each  of 
the  old  noble  houses  had  a  following  of  little  families 
of  clients  about  it,  who  also  frequently  adopted  the 
name  of  the  ruling  family.  From  such  a  family 


92  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE      [BK.  m 

sprang  the  great  democrat,  Daniele  Manin,  whose 
defence  of  Venice  against  the  Austrians  is  among  the 
most  exalted  feats  of  our  century. 


§  21.   The  Democratic  Republic. 

As  the  theocracy  is  the  drowsiest,  the  monarchy  the 
most  many-sided,  the  aristocracy  the  most  methodical, 
so  is  the  democracy  the  most  generally  intelligible  and 
most  popular  among  the  forms  of  the  State.  The 
fundamental  principle  on  which  it  is  based  is  the  idea 
of  the  natural  equality  of  everything  that  bears  a 
human  visage ;  this  idea  has  something  exalted  about 
it,  and  it  is  very  easy  to  understand  why  it  has  so 
often  had  an  intoxicating  effect.  We  know  well  that 
it  is  only  half  true,  and  never  entirely  to  be  realized, 
but  it  is  deeply  rooted  in  human  nature.  That  the 
idea  of  inequality  is  equally  true,  that  we  are  all, 
indeed,  equal  as  men,  but  unequal  as  individuals,  the 
ordinary  view  of  things  cannot  recognize.  The 
ordinary  human  intelligence  speaks  of  equality  alone. 
'kt  a  certain  stage  of  the  civilization  of  the  people, 
therefore,  democracy  can  have  an  effect  in  promoting 
culture ;  it  is,  if  at  all  well  administered,  the  most 
popular  form  of  the  State,  and,  in  countries  where  it 
prevails,  is  looked  upon  as  so  self-evident  that  other 


§20]         THE  DEMOCRATIC  REPUBLIC  93 

forms  are  considered  to  be  nonsensical  or  gross  tyranny. 
However  different  the  character  it  may  assume  accord- 
ing to  social  conditions,  it  always  retains  the  principal 
quality,  that  its  ideal  is  the  &//uo?  novap-xps.  The  people 
must  really  be  the  sole  ruler,  and  the  object  is  in  such  a 
manner  to  extend  the  rights  of  the  people  that  ultimately 
general  equality  shall  exist,  at  least  upon  paper. 


Artificial  democracies  are  relatively  more  frequent 
than  artificial  monarchies  and  aristocracies.  A  nobility 
cannot  be  made,  if  it  is  not  there  already ;  as  little 
can  a  dynasty  be  created  at  will ;  on  the  contrary yAt 
is  quite  possible,  by  means  of  an  over-hasty  revolution, 
to  introduce  democratic  forms  even  where  they  have 
no  natural  foundation,  because  of  the  customs  of  the 
country,  or  because  of  the  great  inequalities  of  social 
conditions.  And  these  democratic  forms  may  then 
persist,  because  they  are  very  elastic,  and  because  an 
aristocratic  element  can  easily  accommodate  itself  to 
them.  It  is  so  even  yet  in  Bern.  Or  look  at  present- 
day  France :  under  a  purely  democratic  constitution 
there  is  what  is  in  point  of  fact  a  complete  plutocracy  ; 
the  oligarchic  power  of  a  few  great  banking  houses, 
which  tacitly  make  use  of  the  democratic  forms,  in 
order  to  exploit  them  for  their  own  objects. 


94  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE      [BK.  HI 

...  In  democracies,  on  the  contrary,  a  rigid  deno- 
minationalism  is  the  rule,  and  for  domestic  life  in 
North  America  this  denominational  narrow-mindedness 
is  in  fact  a  real  blessing.  Here  the  Sabbath  in  its 
ghastly  form  is  really  necessary.  To  our  German 
sentiment  nothing  is  more  horrible  than  such  a  day  of 
rest,  of  complete  inactivity,  every  week.  We  incline 
to  the  opposite  fault,  to  a  Sunday  of  dissipation;  a 
stricter  celebration  of  the  Sunday  can  do  no  harm  in 
Germany.  But  God  preserve  us  from  the  English- 
American  Sabbath !  One  must  have  completely  ex- 
hausted oneself  in  every  muscle  and  nerve  for  the  past 
six  days,  in  order  to  feel  that  this  absolute  laziness  on 
the  seventh  day  is  a  release.  The  severe  and  rigid,  alto- 
gether narrow-minded  ecclesiasticism  of  the  Americans, 
which  is  so  repulsive  to  us  more  liberal  Germans,  is 
thus  shown  to  be  a  practical  necessity.  We  come  to 
recognize  that  democracy  must  in  any  case  rest  upon 
the  foundation  of  a  very  strong  religious  morality,  if  it 
is  not  to  get  quite  out  of  control 


§  21.  Confederacy  of  States  and  Federal  State. 

We  have  to-day  on  the  Scandinavian  peninsula  the 
same  relations  as  those  between  Belgium  and  Holland 
after  1815.  The  political  connection  of  these  two 


§21]  CONFEDERACY  OF  STATES  95 

peoples  also  looked  wonderfully  well  on  the  map,  and 
was  yet  in  reality  intolerable.  Similarly  to-day  with 
the  union  between  Sweden  and  Norway.  Norway 
democratizes  in  the  most  repulsive  way ;  it  is  a  people 
of  peasants,  where  every  churl  is  a  churl,  each  as  coarse 
and  clownish  as  the  other,  and  then  on  the  top,  with 
this  rude  peasantry  as  a  foundation,  an  immense  refine- 
ment of  city  life.  Then  very  naturally  there  arises  an 
over-refined,  decadent  literature ;  such  spirits  as  Ibsen 
are  intelligible  on  this  soil.  Look  at  Sweden,  on  the 
other  hand,  with  her  recollections  of  the  days  when  she 
was  a  Great  Power;  the  good  Swedish  soldiers  even 
to-day,  and  in  Christiania  the  ludicrous  figures  with 
their  lersagliert -\\ate,  who  are  called  soldiers  also — 
the  sharp  contrast  is  everywhere  as  clear  as  noonday. 
In  spite  of  this,  however,  we  find  in  Norway  a  capacity 
for  the  conduct  of  trade  which  deserves  admiration; 
Norway  has  a  larger  mercantile  fleet  than  Germany. 
Of  course  the  configuration  of  the  coast  is  such  that 
intercourse  between  different  places  in  that  country 
can  only  be  carried  on  by  ship.  In  contrast  to  this, 
Sweden's  industries  have  achieved  little  so  far.  The 
Norwegian  is  at  the  present  time  filled  with  a  pro- 
found, democratic,  peasant's  hatred  of  Sweden,  and 
everything  seems  to  indicate  that  the  attempt  to 
separate  the  two  kingdoms  will  be  made. 


96  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE      [BK.  m 


§22.   The  Empire. 

. . .  He  who  judges  impartially  must  say  that,  since 
the  Great  Elector,  the  political  history  of  Germany  is 
entirely  contained  in  Prussia.  Every  clod  of  land 
which  was  lost  through  the  fault  of  the  old  Empire, 
and  was  won  back  again,  was  acquired  by  means  of 
Prussia.  In  that  State  lay  thenceforth  the  political 
energies  of  the  German  nation  just  as  certainly  as  she 
did  not  contain  in  her  for  a  long  time  its  ideal  energies, 
in  fact  almost  thrust  them  from  her.  The  new 
Germany,  after  the  confusion  of  the  War  of  Liberation, 
was  at  first  only  a  loose  juxtaposition  of  the  small 
onarchic  States,  which  in  that  immense  fluctuation 
remained  alone  upon  the  battle-field.  And  the 
creative  work  of  the  Prussian  State  begins  anew.  All 
the  politically  real  content  of  the  history  of  the  league 
was  enacted  in  Prussia.  On  Prussian  soil  that  arming 
of  the  nation  began  which  was  later  to  become  the  lot 
of  all  Germany ;  through  it  the  eight  provinces  of  Prussia 
grew  simultaneously  into  one  whole.  The  proof  was 
given  by  the  facts  that  an  executive  power  which  was 
in  a  position  to  unite  Trier  and  Tilsit  in  internal 
peace,  would  also  have  the  power  to  unite  and  to 
protect  all  Germany.  And  soon  the  Prussian  Customs- 
Union  began  to  trace  out  the  real  frontiers  of  Germany 


§22]  THE  EMPIRE  97 

as  opposed  to  the  real  foreign  countries.  The  black- 
and-yellow  boundary-posts  with  the  nefarious  double- 
eagle  remained  outside.  It  had  been  our  misfortune 
through  many  centuries,  that  no  one  knew  where 
Germany  stopped  The  time  was  now  to  come  at  last 
in  which  the  single-headed  eagle  of  the  old  emperor, 
which  the  eastern  march  of  Prussia  alone  had  kept  for 
itself,  won  its  victories  over  the  double-eagle  which 
had  so  deeply  injured  and  insulted  us. 


For  the  improvement  of  centralization  a  real  capital 
would  also  be  very  necessary  to  the  empire,  while  the 
federal  republics,  as  we  have  seen,  exhibit  the  opposite 
of  such  a  need.  Although  the  Berliner  is  the  most 
unbearable  person  in  all  Germany,  yet  Berlin  is  bound 
to  become  much  greater  yet,  must  attract  to  itself 
much  more  of  the  nation's  energies.  Before  1866 
there  were  very  many  worthy  German  patriots  who 
with  thorough  earnestness  wished  German  unity,  but, 
from  an  intelligible  ill-will  against  Berlin,  wished 
Brunswick  or  Hildesheim  or  Nuremberg  for  the  capital. 
These  are  aberrations  which  are  no  longer  understood 
at  the  present  day,  but  they  had  at  that  time  gained  a 
very  firm  footing.  /'This  capital  of  the  Jewish  news- 
paper-press will,  of  course,  never  be  able  to  become 

the  centre  of  German  national  life.y    Add  to  this,  that 

7 


98      CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  STATE     [BK.  in,  §  22 

Berlin  is  also  too  unaesthetic  to  become  the  centre  of 
the  noblest  civilizing  activities  of  the  German  people. 
A  true  artist  cannot  live  here.  How  one  can  be  a 
poet  and  conceive  the  idea  of  living  in  Berlin  has 
always  been  incomprehensible  to  me.  It  will  always 
be  the  case  that  towns  like  Munich  and  Dresden  will 
offer  more  stimulus  for  artistic  souls  than  Berlin  can 
ever  give.  On  that  account  also  the  empire,  fortu- 
nately, on  the  whole,  for  art  itself,  has  left  the  care  of 
artistic  matters  to  the  individual  States,  showing  in 
this  case  a  justified  particularism. 

For  the  rest,  however,  it  is  evident,  that  the  city 
which  is  once  recognized  as  the  capital  must  be  as 
rich  in  spiritual  energies  as  is  possible  at  all.  It  was 
a  grave  error  of  federalist  policy,  which  can  now,  alas, 
no  longer  be  retrieved,  to  remove  the  supreme  court 
of  the  empire  to  Leipzig.  Every  member  of  the 
supreme  court  feels  as  if  he  were  a  fish  out  of  water. 
In  all  really  united  States  the  seat  of  the  highest  court 
has  always  been  the  capital.  And  for  the  life  of  com- 
merce, also,  an  even  greater  centralization  in  Berlin  is 
unavoidable.  It  is,  indeed,  very  evident  what  a  power 
of  attraction  the  Imperial  Bank  and  the  other  Berlin 
banks  have  exercised.  And  this  must  remain  so.  'If 
Germany  is  to  become  a  real  monarchy,  the  capital  of 
its  emperor  must  also  become  the  capital  of  the  nation  ; 
this  centralization  lies  in  the  nature  of  things. 


BOOK  IV.    THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE 
STATE 

§  23.   The  Organization  of  the  Army. 

EVEN  he  who  looks  upon  the  army  as  an  evil  must 
consider  it  in  any  case  as  a  necessary  evil.  If  the 
State  itself  is  necessary  and  rational,  it  follows  that  it 
must  maintain  itself  as  against  other  States.  We  shall 
see,  however,  in  addition,  that  an  efficient  and  powerful 
equipment  of  the  army  is  also  the  basis  of  political 
freedom,  that  consequently  the  States  are  by  no  means 
to  be  commiserated  that  have  a  powerful,  well-organized 
army.  In  this  very  domain  theory  removed  from  actual 
life  has  constantly  suffered  ludicrous  defeats  from  the 
power  of  facts.  Every  one  who  calls  himself  liberal- 
minded  talks  of  the  ideal  belief  that  the  States  were 
hastening  towards  universal  disarmament  But  what 
does  the  history  of  our  century  teach  ?  The  very 
opposite ;  armament  becomes  ever  stronger  and  heavier, 
and  this  phenomenon  is  exhibited  in  every  State  with- 
out exception,  and  cannot  therefore  rest  upon  an 
accident.  The  fact  is,  a  radical  error  lies  in  this  whole 


100      ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  STATE  [BK.  iv 

liberal    conception.      The    State    is    no    Academy    of 
Arts,  still  less  a  Stock  Exchange ;   it  is  power,  ancl 


therefore  it  contradicts  its  own  nature  if  it  neglects 


the 


In  this  case  also  the  very  peculiar  circumstances 
of  England  have  had  a  misleading  effect  upon  the 
theories  of  the  Continent.  England  is  in  military 
respects  in  a  very  abnormal  position.  She  can  con- 
fine herself  to  her  fleet  as  her  national  weapon,  and 
only  requires  to  give  secondary  consideration  to  the 
army,  since  she  has  learned  to  renounce  conquests  on 
the  Continent.  The  godly  dragoons  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well were  the  most  glorious  and  best  army  that 
England  has  ever  possessed,  an  army  worthy  of  admira- 
tion as  regards  technical  skill  and  moral  discipline, 
but  these  troops  belonged  to  a  religious  sect,  and  only 
represented  a  part  of  the  nation.  England  was  forced 
by  means  of  it  into  a  regime  which  suited  only  that 
one  republican  party.  The  country,  however,  was  at 
that  time  still  monarchically  inclined,  as  the  Restora- 
tion shortly  afterwards  showed.  The  opinions  of  the 
English  regarding  the  army  spring  from  those  experi- 
ences of  Puritan  rule.  At  that  time  the  old  liberties 
of  the  country  were  enslaved  and  trodden  upon  by  a 
continued  state  of  martial  law;  England  lay  at  the 
feet  of  the  army.  Cromwell  could  not  govern  the 
country  otherwise  than  through  his  major-generals  ; 


§23]       ORGANIZATION  OF  THE' ARMY'        101 

the  first  business  of  the  Restoration  was  the  disband- 
ing of  these  godly  regiments. 

Since  then  there  has  been  a  fixed  opinion  in  England 
that  the  army  was  a  tool  of  the  State,  which  could  be 
used  even  against  the  will  of  the  nation ;  and  then, 
when  a  second  revolution  set  up  a  mock  royalty  by  the 
grace  of  Parliament,  the  Mutiny  Act  was  introduced 
under  William  III.  It  runs  something  like  this : 
"  Whereas  the  condition  of  a  standing  army  is  against 
the  law  of  this  country,  but  as,  in  consideration  of  the 
preservation  of  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe  and  in 
order  to  keep  the  Colonies  in  order,  it  is  expedient  to 
call  out  so  many  thousand  men,  the  Crown  is  hereby 
empowered  to  call  out  this  number,  and  the  soldiers 
are  under  the  Mutiny  Act  placed  outside  of  civil  law." 
You  see  at  once  the  ludicrous  contrast  to  Germany. 
With  us  the  institution  of  the  army  is  really  a  conse- 
quence of  the  laws.  The  Defence  Act  of  1814,  one 
of  the  grandest  memories  of  Prussia,  forms  the 
foundation  of  a  comprehensive  legislation.  With  us 
the  army  is  thus  placed  upon  a  legal  foundation,  and 
is  not,  as  in  England,  an  anomaly. 


For  it  is  an  advantage  to_a  nat.inn  when  it  has 
strong  and  well-organized  army,  not  only  because  tl 
army  is  intended  to  serve  as  an  instrument  for  foreign] 


102      ADMINISTEATION  OF  THE  STATE    [BK.  iv 
policy,  but  because  a  noble  nation  jyith  a  glorious  his- 


tory can  employ  the  army  for  a  very  long  time  as  a 
dormant  weapon,  and  because  it  forms  a  school  for 


the  peculiarly  manly  virtues  of  the  people,  which  so 


easily  become  lost  in  an  age  of  profit  and  enjoyment. 

Of  course,  we  must  admit  that  there  are  finely-strung, 
refined,  artistic  natures  that  cannot  endure  military 
discipline.  A  perverted  view  of  universal  military 
service  often  emanates  from  such  people.  In  these 
great  matters,  however,  we  must  not  judg«  according 
to  exceptional  natures,  but  according  to  the  old  rule : 
"  Mens  sana  in  corpore  sano"  This  bodily  strength  is 
in  times  like  ours  especially  significant.  It  is  a  defect 
of  English  civilization  that  it  does  not  Cnow  universal 
military  service.  This  defect  is  to  some  extent 
remedied  by  the  fact  that  the  fleet  is  so  powerfully 
developed,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  continual  petty 
warfare  in  its  numberless  colonies  employs  and  keeps 
fresh  the  manly  energies  of  the  nation.  That  a  great 
bodily  robustness  is  still  to  be  found  in  England  is 
partly  connected  with  this  constant  fighting  in  the 
colonies.  But  if  we  look  more  attentively,  a  great 
defect  is  disclosed.  The  lack  of  chivalry  in  the 
English  character,  which  contrasts  so  strikingly  with 


the  naive  loyalty  of  t.hp.  frPirmnnB   is  connected  with 


Jiejactihati  in  that  OQimtry.jaenjdg.jiot  seek  bodily 


exercise  in  the  use  of  the  noble  weapons,  but  in  the 


§  23]        ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  ARMY         103 

accomplishments  of   boxing,  swimming   and    rowinj 
jrtainly  these  exercises  have  their  value,  but  it  is 


the 

athleti..- 

spirit,  with 

its 

coarseiros.1 

ind  a  superficial 

mind,  whose  sole  endeavour  k  always  to  win  the  first 
prize,. 

It  remains  the  normal  and  rational  course  when  a 
great  nation  embodies  and  develops  in  an  organized 
army  the  nature  of  the  State,  which  is  precisely  power, 
by  means  of  its  physical  strength.  And,  as  we  have 
lived  in  a  warlike  age,  the  over-nice,  philanthropic  way 
of  looking  at  these  things  has  retreated  more  into  the 
background,  so  that,  with  Clausewitz,  we  again  look 
upon  war  as  the  forcible  continuation  of  policy.  All 
the  pipe-of-peace-smokers  in  the  world  will  not  bring 
matters  so  far  that  the  political  powers  will  at  any 
time  bo  of  one  mind,  and,  if  they  are  not,  the  sword 
alone  can  decide  between  them.  We  have  learned  to 
know  the  moral  majesty  of  war  in  the  very  thing  that 
appears  brutal  and  inhuman  to  superficial  observers. 
That  one  must  overcome  the  natural  feelings  of 


humanity  for  the  sake  of  the  fatherland,  that  in  this 


case  men  murder  one  anotherwho  have  never  harmed 


one  another  before  and  who  perhaps  esteem  one  another 
highly  as  chivalrous  enemies,  that  is  at  the  first  glance 
the  awfulness  of  war,  but  at  the  same  time  its  great- 
ness also.  A  man  must  sacrifice  not  only  his  life,  but 


104       ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  STATE  [BK.  iv 

\  jilso  natural,  profoundly  justified  feelings  of  the  human 
I  soul;    hp  Tpiisi-.  yield  up  his  whole  ego  to  a  great 

;  patriotic  idea  :   that  is  the  moral  exaltedness  of  war. 

*If  we  pursue  this  thought  further  we  recognize  that 
war,  with  all  its  sternness  and  roughness,  also  weaves 
a  bond  of  love  between  men,  since  here  all  class-dis- 
tinctions vanish,  and  the  risk  of  death  knits  man  to 
man.  He  who  knows  history  knows  also  that  it  would 
positively  be  a  mutilation  of  human  nature  if  we  tried 
to  banish  war  out  of  the  world.  There  is  no  freedom 
without  warlike  strength  which  is  ready  to  sacrifice 
itself  for  freedom.  It  must  be  repeated  again  and  again 
that  scholars,  when  they  consider  these  things,  proceed 
from  the  tacit  assumption  that  the  State  is  only 
destined  to  be  an  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences.  It 
must  be  that  too,  but  that  is  not  its  first  mission.  If 
a  State  neglects  its  physical  energies  in  favour  of  its 
spiritual,  then  it  goes  to  the  wall. 


If  the  army  is  the  organized  political  strength  of 
the  State,  then  that  organization  can  only  be  power 
and  have  no  will  of  its  own,  for  it  is  intended  to 
execute  the  will  of  the  head  of  the  State  in  uncondi- 
tional obedience.  This  subjection  of  its  own  will  to 
that  of  the  head  of  the  State  is  a  very  stern  require- 
ment; that  must  not  be  denied.  But  it  is  obvious, 


§23]        ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  ARMY         105 

that  the  political  freedom  of  a  people  rests  upon  this 
very  demand,  which  all  radical  talkers  decry  as 
reactionary.  If  the  army  had  a  will  of  its  own,  all 
political  security  would  cease.  There  is  no  more 
terrible  plague  conceivable  than  an  army  that  debates 
and  splits  itself  into  parties ;  the  fate  of  Spain  is  in 
this  connection  a  deterrent  example.  How  much  that 
country  suffered  under  the  army,  which  had  always  a 
will  of  its  own  and  took  the  side,  now  of  Carlos,  now 
of  the  virtuous  Isabella!  Only  the  unconditioned 
severity  of  military  discipline  is  a  protection  against 
such  political  dangers. 


In  this  energy  and  firmness  of  obedience  lies  the 
honour  of  the  soldier.  Therefore  the  unconditional 
obedience,  which  is  with  us  developed  almost  to  stern- 
ness, is  a  glory  and  a  sign  of  the  efficiency  of  our 
army  organization.  The  contempt,  with  which  among 
radicals  this  dog-like  obedience  is  so  often  spoken  of, 
proves  itself  to  be  pure  illusion.  The  training  in  the 
army  is  especially  suited  just  for  the  building-up  of 
character.  Old,  efficient  officers  have,  above  all,  well- 
moulded  characters,  and  in  this  respect  are  often  to  be 
placed  higher  than  the  average  scholar,  for  scholars 
have  much  less  opportunity  of  forming  their  characters. 
Goethe's  immortal  saying  in  his  "  Tasso  "  expressed  the 


106       ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  STATE  [BK.  iv 

truth  in  this  connection.    Silent  obedience  to  superiors, 
and  at  the  same  time  strict  discipline  with  inferiors 


demand  an  independence  _of_character  which  is  verj 


highly  to  be  appraised.     Our  Prussian  generals  have 


never  been  anything  else  than  liberal-minded  men. 


The  example  of  the  German  national  army  has  had 
an  irresistible  effect  upon  the  rest  of  Europe.  Every- 
thing that  was  formerly  said  in  mockery  of  it  has 
proved  itself  fallacious.  It  was  the  rule  abroad  to 
look  down  with  shrugging  of  the  shoulders  upon  the 
Prussian  Landwehrs  and  the  Prussian  children's  army. 
How  differently  have  things  turned  out !  It  has  been 
plainly  shown  that  in  war  the  moral  factors  have 
more  weight  than  technical  training ;  and  it  has  been 
shown  further  that  a  moral  deterioration  goes  hand  in 
hand  with  the  increasing  technical  experience  of  the 
barracks.  The  old  sergeants  of  France  were  not  in  the 
least  superior,  as  the  French  expected,  to  the  German 
troops.  We  may  declare  that  the  problem  of  training 
in  arms  and  turning  to  real  account  the  energies  of 
the  nation  was  first  undertaken  in  thorough  earnestness 
by  Germany.  We  possess  in  our  army  a  characteristic, 
necessary  continuation  of  the  school-system.  For 
many  men  there  is  no  better  means  of  training ;  for 
them  drilling,  compulsory  cleanliness  and  severe  dis- 


§23]        ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  ARMY         107 

cipline  are  physically  and  morally  indispensable  in  a 
time  like  ours,  which  unchains  all  spirits.  Carlyle 
prophesied  that  the  Prussian  idea  of  universal  liability 
of  service  would  make  the  round  of  the  world.  Since 
in  1866  and  1870  the  Prussian  army-organization 
stood  its  trial  so  brilliantly,  almost  all  the  other  great 
States  of  the  Continent  have  tried  to  imitate  it 


In  all  these  organizings  of  the  army  we  were  until 
lately  the  leaders  of  the  other  nations.  Only  recently 
has  the  over-straining  of  military  strength  in  the 
neighbouring  States  become  so  great  that  Germany 
sees  herself  compelled  likewise,  and  this  time  in  imita- 
tion of  the  foreign  countries,  to  go  still  further.  There 
is  a  last  limit  provided  by  the  nature  of  things,  and 
here  the  immense  physical  strength  of  the  Germanic 
race  will  itself  look  to  it,  that  we  always  retain  a 
considerable  advantage  over  the  less  prolific  nations. 
The  French  have  come  close  to  their  extreme  limit ;  the 
Germans  have  in  this  respect  a  much  greater  margin. 

You  must  realize  clearly  once  more  how  these  new 
formations  of  the  army  affect  the  waging  of  war.  On 
the  whole  the  tendency  of  the  system  is  a  peaceful 
one.  A  whole  nation  in  arms  is  dragged  out  of  its 
social  employments  into  a  frivolous  war  with  much 
more  difficulty  than  a  conscript  army.  Wars  become 


108       ADMINISTEATION  OF  THE  STATE    [BK.  iv 

fewer  and  shorter,  but  at  the  same  time  also  bloodier. 
The  desire  to  get  home  again  will  give  a  strong  im- 
pulse forwards.  The  frame  of  mind  of  the  Prussian 
soldiers  in  the  summer  of  1866,  which  expressed  itself 
in  the  wish :  "  Let  us  push  on  quickly  to  the  Danube, 
so  that  we  can  get  home  soon  again,"  is  to  be  looked 
upon  as  the  normal  wish  of  a  brave  and  at  the  same 
time  peacefully  inclined  national  army.  That  bold 
method  of  making  war,  which  seeks  as  a  matter  of 
principle  to  thrust  into  the  enemy's  heart,  is  nowadays 
taken  as  self-evident.  We  may  say  that  with  such  a 
national  army,  when  the  nation  looks  back  upon  a 
glorious  history,  nothing  is  really  impossible;  the 
experiences  of  our  two  last  wars,  especially  the  battles 
of  Koniggratz  and  Mars-la-Tour,  have  proved  that. 
We  saw  in  the  battle  of  Sadowa  that  fourteen  Prussian 
battalions  held  their  ground  against  perhaps  forty-two 
Austrian,  and  the  French  war  showed  us  a  whole  series 
of  decisive  battles  fought  with  reversed  front,  the  loss 
of  which  would  have  driven  us  back  into  the  heart  of 
the  enemy's  country.  The  task  of  sparing  an  army 
recedes  quite  into  the  background,  in  the  case  of  a 
modern  national  army,  as  compared  with  the  greater  and 
more  peremptory  task  of  destroying  the  enemy.  The 
danger  of  desertion  does  not  come  into  consideration 
here  at  all ;  the  army  can  be  quartered  everywhere. 


§  23]        ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  ARMY         109 

I  shall  in  conclusion  only  point  out  shortly  that  the 
fleet  is  beginning  to-day  to  gain  increased  importance, 
not  specially  for  European  war — no  one  believes  any 
longer  that  a  fight  between  Great  Powers  can  be 
decided  nowadays  by  naval  battles — but  rather  for  the 
protection  of  trade  and  of  colonies.  The  domination 
of  the  transatlantic  countries  will  be  now  the  first  task 
of  European  battle-fleets.  For,  as  the  aim  of  human 
culture  will  be  the  aristocracy  of  the  white  race  over 
the  whole  earth,  the  importance  of  a  nation  will  ulti- 
mately depend  upon  what  share  it  has  in  the 
domination  of  the  transatlantic  world.  Therefore  the 
importance  of  the  fleet  has  again  grown  greater  in  our 
days. 


$  24.   The  Administration  of  the  Law. 

Finally,  the  necessity  is  clear  that  the  administration 
of  the  law  should  be  accessible  to  all,  not  only  in 
name,  but  also  in  deed.  In  this  respect  England 
stands  as  far  behind  the  Continent  as  it  has  out- 
stripped us  in  other  respects.  A  lawsuit  in  England 
is  so  dear  that  it  is  only  possible  for  the  rich  man. 
The  small  farmer  cannot  raise  an  action  against  his 
superior,  because  the  costs  are  beyond  his  means.  In 
this  aristocratic  distortion  of  life  lies  a  fundamental 


110      ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  STATE   [UK.  iv 

fault  of  the  English  State-organization.  For  it  is 
obvious  that  such  a  state  of  affairs  is  a  radical  error, 
that  the  State  must  intervene  with  its  means,  in  order 
to  make  it  possible  for  the  poor  man  to  carry  on  a 
lawsuit.  Where  the  administration  of  the  law  is  not 
approximately  accessible  to  all,  its  effectiveness  cannot 
be  sound. 


As  in  all  human  affairs,  there  must  also  be  in  every 
system  of  punishment  a  last  limit,  a  ne  plus  ultra  that 
no  punishment  can  overstep.  Thus  even  from  the  point 
of  view  of  pure  theory  the  necessity  of  the  death- 
penalty  is  postulated  ;  it  is,  as  the  ultimate  punishment 
on  earth,  the  indispensable  keystone  of  every  ordered 
system  of  criminal  law.  No  apparent  reasons  which 
are  alleged  against  it  can  withstand  any  serious 
criticism.  We  blush  that  men  should  maintain  that 
the  State  commits  a  wrong  when  it  attacks  the  life  of 
the  criminal.  The  State,  which  has  the  right  to 
sacrifice  for  its  own  protection  the  flower  of  its  youth, 
is  to  feel  so  nice  a  regard  for  the  life  of  a  murderer ! 
We  must  rather  allow  unreservedly  to  the  State  the 
right  to  make  away  with  men  who  are  undoubtedly 
injurious  to  the  common  weal.  Accept  this  also  as 
true,  that  the  death  punishment  must  be  permitted  to 
the  army  in  time  of  war,  even  by  those  people  who  at 


§  24]       ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  LAW        111 

other  times  think  to  dispose  of  it  by  phrases.  If  a 
deserter  cannot  be  shot  forthwith,  then  war  is  not 
possible.  And  yet  a  deserting  soldier  may  have  many 
moral  grounds  of  excuse  in  his  favour  which  a  common 
assassin  cannot  adduce. 

That  the  powers  that  be  must  bear  the  sword  is  a 
biblical  expression  which  runs  deep  in  the  blood  of  the 
honest  man ;  if  this  truth  is  to  be  banished  out  of  the 
world,  great  wrong  is  done  to  the  simple  moral  feeling 
of  the  people.  The  ultimate  problems  of  the  moral 
life  are  to  be  solved  in  the  domain  of  the  practical,  not 
of  the  theoretical,  reason.  The  conscience  of  every 
earnest  man  demands  that  blood  be  atoned  by  blood, 
and  the  common  man  must  simply  grow  doubtful  of 
the  existence  of  justice  on  earth,  if  this  last  and 
highest  punishment  is  not  inflicted.  Picture  to  your- 
self a  murderer  of  the  type  of  the  Australian  murderers, 
whose  murdering  runs  in  the  blood,  who  is  condemned 
to  penal  servitude  for  life.  He  breaks  out,  murders 
again,  and  returns  in  quiet  contentment  to  the  same 
prison,  since  the  State  can  inflict  no  other  punishment. 
Does  such  a  State  not  do  violence  to  every  moral 
feeling  ?  It  makes  itself  ridiculous  and  contemptible 
if  it  cannot  finally  dispose  of  the  criminal.  There  must 
be  a  limit  for  mercy  and  indulgence,  as  for  the  law,  a 
last  limit  at  which  the  State  says :  "  This  is  the  end, 
humanity  is  no  longer  possible  here."  It  must  be 


112       ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  STATE   [BK.  iv 

possible  to  inflict  at  last  a  punishment  beyond  which 
there  is  nothing,  and  that  is  the  punishment  of  death. 


To  this  far-reaching  privilege  of  the  presiding  judge 
there  is  added  before  everything  in  England  the 
unanimity  of  the  jury,  while  in  France,  where,  since 
the  Revolution,  the  English  trial  by  jury  has  been 
adopted,  but  at  the  same  time  mutilated,  conclusions 
by  majority  were  introduced.  Most  certainly  the 
English  procedure  in  this  respect  is  the  only  proper 
one.  By  conclusions  of  a  majority  the  guilt  or  inno- 
cence of  a  prisoner  is  as  little  decided  as  a  religious  or 
scientific  problem.  The  question,  "  Has  A  murdered 
B  ? "  cannot  be  answered  by  the  vote  of  a  majority. 
The  demand  for  unanimity  is,  on  the  whole,  in  spite  of 
its  severity,  fully  justified,  for  here  strength  of  character 
can  be  shown.  How  often  does  it  happen  that  a  single 
juryman  influences  the  waverers  because  he  has  an 
inner  conviction  of  the  correctness  of  his  opinion ! 
The  English  have  held  to  this  principle  to  this  day 
with  an  energy  which  redounds  very  greatly  to  their 
honour.  We,  on  the  contrary,  have  still  far  too  much 
respect  for  the  moral  cowardice  which  plays  so  great  a 
part  in  this  trial-by-jury  system.  It  is  much  too 
pleasant  for  many  men  to  allow  themselves  to  be  out- 
voted. There  are  such  natures  everywhere,  and  among 


§24]       ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  LAW        113 

the  very  people  who  call  themselves  liberal-minded. 
Our  liberals  are  true  types  of  men  who  like  to  allow 
themselves  to  be  outvoted.  The  juryman  is  more  than 
any  other  exposed  to  this  moral  danger  of  the  tempta- 
tion to  say  "  no  "  in  the  silent  hope  of  being  outvoted ; 
therefore  the  stern  English  principle  of  unanimity  is 
altogether  to  be  approved. 


$  25.   The  Finances  of  the  State. 

All  this  was  changed  by  the  gigantic  convulsions 
of  the  Napoleonic  wan;  all  States  were  now  com- 
pelled to  contract  war-loans.  All  emerged  from  the 
huge  combat  laden  with  heavy  debts,  and  in  Germany 
the  opinion  very  naturally  developed  itself,  that  it  was 
best  for  a  State,  just  as  for  a  private  individual,  to 
have  no  debts  at  all,  and  that  consequently  States  in 
times  of  peace  should  conduct  their  affairs  economically 
and  gradually  pay  off  ail  war-time  debts.  This  view 
found  its  theoretical  expression  in  Nebenius's  classic, 
"Public  Credit"  (1820).  In  it  the  most  intelligent 
of  the  financiers  of  Baden  at  that  time  makes  the 
assertion,  that  the  debt  of  the  State  is  the  worm  that 
gnaws  at  the  roots  of  the  tree  of  policy ;  and  that  it 
ought  to  be  gradually  paid  off  as  soon  as  possible. 

This  Philistine  doctrine  found  approval  among  the 


114       ADMINISTKATION  OF  THE  STATE   [BK.  iv 

honest,  thrifty  Prussian  officialdom  of  the  old  school, 
and  our  national  debt  legislation  of  1820  started  from 
the  hope  that  we  would  succeed  in  paying  off  by  1860 
the  whole  of  the  national  debt,  as  the  extinction  took 
place  according  to  a  fixed  plan.  But  then  the  dis- 
covery was  presently  made  that  States  which  had  a 
much  greater  national  debt,  such  as  France  and 
England,  were  increasing  in  prosperity  still  faster  than 
Prussia.  England  had  the  largest  national  debt  of  all 
the  countries  of  Europe,  and,  although  little  was  paid  off, 
its  wealth  was  growing  and  growing  beyond  measure. 
Thus,  after  the  extinction  of  the  Prussian  national  debt 
had  continued  for  a  number  of  years,  the  old  minister 
Eother  himself  became  perplexed.  In  1843  he  drew 
up  a  memorial  in  which  he  submitted  to  Frederick 
William  IV.  that  they  ought  not  to  continue  too  long 
with  the  extinction  of  the  national  debt.  In  1852  it 
would  amount  to  only  100  million  dollars ;  then  they 
must  stop,  as  it  ought  not  to  drop  below  that.  There 
were  capitalists  in  Prussia  who  wished  to  invest  their 
money  safely  somewhere,  and  who  would  then  go  abroad. 
This  representative  of  the  old  school  of  Prussian  officials 
had  thus  learned  by  experience  the  hollowness  of  that 
theory.  But,  that  the  national  debt  must  even  be  con- 
siderably increased  again,  he  did  not  see  yet ;  such  in- 
sight was  too  far  removed  from  the  views  of  the  period. 


§25]       THE  FINANCES  OF  THE  STATE         115 

In  contrast  to  the  war-loan,  which  only  attracts 
voluntary  capital,  the  war-tax  takes  capital  every- 
where by  compulsion,  even  in  places  where  it  is  not 
available,  and  in  places  where  it  perhaps  brings  in  ten 
per  cent.  So  we  arrive  at  the  result  that  an  intelligent 
utilization  of  the  State's  credit  may  be,  from  the  point 
of  view  of  political  economy,  more  correct  than  the 
cheaper  method  of  increased  taxation.  If  we  consider 
the  conditions  in  England,  which  have  been  the  origin 
of  her  huge  national  debt,  it  is  evident  that  even 
England  could  not  at  that  time  have  borne  the  pres- 
sure of  the  taxes  that  would  have  been  necessary. 
She  undoubtedly  acted  correctly,  whatever  mistakes  she 
made  in  details,  when  she  employed  the  medium  of 
credit  for  her  Napoleonic  wars,  and  left  undisturbed 
the  capital  that  was  bearing  better  interest  in  private 
trade.  That  England  kept  becoming  richer  in  spite  of 
the  colossal  increase  of  her  national  debt,  is  to  be 
explained  in  that  way.  And  if  any  one  tried  to  say 
of  this,  that  these  war-loans  have  been  unproductive, 
even  in  the  narrowest  economic  sense,  we  should  be 
obliged  to  laugh.  Was  it  an  unproductive  war-policy 
that  brought  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  who  knows 
what  else,  into  England's  big  pockets  ?  The  richest 
countries  of  the  earth  had  been  won. 

But  we  see  further,  that  with  increasing  economic 
culture  in  a  nation  a  whole  class  of  capitalists  is  neces- 


116      ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  STATE   [BK.  iv 

sarily  developed,  ani  that  it  is  a  vital  point  for  the  State 
to  bind  this  capital  i/o  itself.  For,  if  it  resigns  itself  and 
makes  no  use  of  its  credit,  it  drives  it  abroad  or  into 
private  businesses  of  every  kind,  very  many  of  which 
are  fraudulent.  Thus  the  surprising  truth  emerges 
that,  for  the  sake  of  public  order  and  solidity,  a  State 
is  in  duty  bound  to  have  a  large  debt.  That  leads 
still  further.  My  old  friend  Karl  Mathy  used  always 
to  say :  "  I  wish  nothing  better  for  us  Germans  than 
a  really  heavy  imperial  debt ;  it  would  be  the  strongest 
material  bond."  The  truth  that  lies  in  these  words 
is  unmistakable.  We  have  seen  it  much  too  late. 
What  the  fact,  that  the  South  German  capitalists  all 
possessed  Austrian  securities,  meant  for  the  attitude  of 
South  Germany  in  1866,  is  known  to  every  one  who 
lived  there  at  that  time. 

France  owes  very  much  in  this  respect  to  her  national 
debt  organization.  The  fine,  never-sufficiently-to-be- 
admired,  national  sense  of  the  French  brings  it  about 
of  itself  that  every  Frenchman  who  saves — and  what 
Frenchman  does  not  save  ? — invests  his  capital  in  the 
three-per-cent.  consols,  and  only  retains  a  fixed  sum 
for  speculative  shares.  That  is  an  invaluable  bond 
for  the  unity  of  the  State.  If  after  each  of  the  num- 
berless convulsions  the  State  recovered  its  feet  again 
so  quickly,  then  there  was  that  very  obvious  material 
cause,  besides  many  moral  reasons.  The  picture  of  the 


§25]       THE  FINANCES  OF  THE  STATE         117 

French  that  has  been  so  often  drawn  in  our  country 
since  the  time  of  "  Young  Germany  "  is  indeed  a  com- 
pletely false  one.  The  French  are  more  accurate 
reckoners,  more  sparing  and  saving  than  we  Germans. 
The  German  has  often  by  nature  a  trait  not  only  of 
heroic  boldness,  but  also  of  heroic  carelessness,  much 
more  so  than  the  shrewd,  experienced  Latin.  The 
funds  are  for  the  saving  Frenchman  a  bond  which 
knits  him  very  closely  to  his  State;  the  State  must 
not  be  ruined  on  any  account 


§  26.  Administration  in  the  Narrower  Sense. 

In  England  the  boundary-line  between  the  officials 
proper  and  the  so-called  "olerks"  is  placed,  accord- 
ing to  our  ideas,  very  high  up.  The  officials,  in 
our  sense  of  the  word,  number  eighty  at  most  All 
the  rest  are  "clerks,"  executive  tools;  they  do  not 
rise  to  the  higher  posts.  English  officialdom  is  not, 
like  ours,  a  universally  respected  class;  "clerks"  of 
good  family  are  found  only  in  India,  if  at  all.  Row- 
land Hill  was  never  an  actual  minister,  an  independent 
manager  of  the  postal  system ;  he  remained  always 
chief  "clerk"  in  the  Post  Office.  This  dependent 
position,  subaltern  in  the  worst  sense,  of  officialdom 
in  England  is  of  a  piece,  as  we  have  seen,  with  the 


118      ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  STATE   [BK.  iv 

whole  character  of  the  old  English  State,  which  was 
thoroughly  aristocratic.  Even  in  France  the  boundary- 
line  is  placed  very  high  up  between  the  small  number 
of  fonctioniiaires  and  the  huge  majority  of  employes, 
the  subalterns,  who  may  be  dismissed,  like  clerks, 
without  ceremony  and  without  pension.  In  this 
case,  however,  it  is  not  to  assure  the  aristocracy 
of  Parliament,  but  in  order  that  the  head  of  the 
State  for  the  time  being  may  keep  the  whole  mass 
of  officials  in  hand;  the  possibility  of  sweeping  away 
a  great  number  at  one  time  ad  nutum  principis  must 
exist. 

Germany,  in  accordance  with  her  eminently  scientific 
character,  seeks  the  essence  of  genuine  officialdom  in  an 
intellectual  census.  The  idea  that,  with  the  evidence 
of  a  certain  degree  of  education,  the  proof  of  ability  to 
govern  men  is  also  adduced,  is  a  genuinely  German 
one,  and  is  deeply  rooted  in  the  soil  of  our  somewhat 
theoretical  idealism.  On  the  whole,  however,  it  has 
proved  itself  to  be  true  with  us.  The  boundary-line 
between  officials  proper  and  subalterns  is  placed  in 
Germany  where  the  students  end.  Only  in  more 
recent  times  have  other  categories  of  officials,  who  can 
compare  with  the  students,  also  been  formed,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  great  development  of  technical  science. 
This  boundary-line  is  now  very  much  lower  with  us 
than  in  France  and  England.  It  goes  down  to  the 


§  26]  IN  THE  NARROWER  SENSE  119 

lowest  assessor,  and  for  that  reason  German  officialdom 
retains  its,  in  a  good  sense,  democratic  character.  But 
at  the  same  time  there  has  been  developed  within  it  a 
series  of  conceptions  of  the  honour  of  the  class  which 
are  foreign  to  other  nations. 


BOOK  V.    THE  STATE  IN  INTERNATIONAL 
INTERCOURSE 

§  27.  History  of  the  Company  of  States. 

. . .  WITH  the  Seven  Years'  War  was  linked  the  great 
colonial  war  between  England  and  France,  by  which 
the  question,  whether  the  ocean  should  belong  to  the 
Latin  race  or  the  Germanic  race,  was  finally  decided. 
England  conquered  so  decidedly  that  even  to-day  her 
predominance  on  the  sea  still  continues.  But  every 
new  victory  over  the  French  became  for  the  English 
an  occasion  for  trampling  the  law  of  nations  underfoot. 
Under  the  appearance  of  fairness  and  justice,  revolting 
ill-treatment  of  neutrals  was  perpetrated  at  sea.  When 
the  American  colonies,  which  in  the  war  against  France 
had  fought  heroically  on  England's  side,  broke  away 
from  the  mother  country,  a  feeling  of  malicious  joy 
passed  over  every  land.  . . 


And,  finally,  the  great  national  movements  in  Central 
Europe  also  break  out:  in  1859  the  rising  of  Italy, 


§27]  HISTORY  OF  COMPANY  OF  STATES     121 

which  leads  in  two  short  years  to  a  united  State, 
and  since  1866  the  decision  in  Germany.  The  victory 
of  Germany  over  France  turns  the  old  system  upside- 
down.  Like  Spain  since  the  Pyrenean  peace,  France 
shows  herself  after  the  battle  of  Sedan  powerless  to 
dominate  the  world  henceforth.  The  map  of  our  part 
of  the  globe  has  been  much  more  natural  since;  the 
centre  is  strengthened,  the  inspired  idea,  that  the 
centre  of  gravity  of  Europe  must  lie  in  the  middle, 
has  become  reality.  Through  the  founding  of  the 
German  empire  a  tranquillity  has  entered  spontane- 
ously into  the  system  of  States,  inasmuch  as  ambition 
in  Prussia  can  now  be  silent;  Prussia  has  essentially 
attained  the  power  she  required.  What  threatens  the 
peace  of  Europe  at  the  present  time  is  the  reaction  of 
those  States  on  the  circumference,  who  have  been 
gradually  forced  into  the  background  by  the  great 
reconstruction,  and  cannot  bear  with  patience  the  loss 
of  their  former  greatness.  This  elevation  of  Germany 
to  real  power  is  the  one  great  change  of  the  European 
system  of  States,  which  began  with  the  year  1866; 
the  other,  the  results  of  which  have  not  yet  borne 
their  full  fruit,  is  that  a  sixth  power,  Italy,  has  entered 
the  old  pentarchy  of  Europe.  Spain's  claim  is  a  purely 
formal  one,  a  mere  question  of  vanity.  On  the  contrary, 
one  can  say  of  Italy,  that  she  is  beginning  to  become 
a  Great  Power,  without  having  been  one  hitherto.  If 


122        INTERNATIONAL  INTERCOURSE      [BK.  v 

Italy  wishes  to  become  a  real  Great  Power,  she  must 
fight ;  her  first  victories  will  raise  her  to  the  position 
to  which  that  gifted  nation  has  a  distinct  claim. 

This  is  how  we  stand  in  the  interior  of  Europe. 
Add  to  this  the  wonderfully  altered  conditions  out- 
side our  part  of  the  globe.  In  the  course  of  little 
more  than  half  a  century  a  transformation  has  been 
accomplished,  such  as  the  earlier  world  never  knew. 
China  and  Japan,  which  were  formerly  hermetically 
sealed  to  Europeans,  began  to  open  their  harbours. 
Even  of  Australia  it  can  be  said,  that  it  was  only  dis- 
covered fifty  years  ago ;  previous  to  that  it  was  only 
a  convict  colony.  In  1860  the  proud  expression  was 
heard,  "The  South  Sea  is  wakening  up,"  a  prophecy 
which  has  now  been  fulfilled.  England,  while  posing 
as  the  defender  of  Liberalism,  egged  on  the  European 
States  against  one  another,  kept  Europe  in  a  condition 
of  latent  unrest,  and  conquered  half  the  world  in  the 
mean  time.  And,  if  she  continues  to  be  successful  in 
maintaining  this  condition  of  unrest  on  the  Continent, 
she  will  put  many  more  countries  into  her  big  pocket. 
Our  nineteenth  century  is,  as  it  were,  the  executor  of 
the  sixteenth.  The  discovery  of  the  New  World, 
which  Columbus  accomplished,  has  only  now  become  a 
practical  reality.  The  non-European  world  is  entering 
more  and  more  within  the  range  of  vision  of  the 
European  States,  and  without  any  doubt  the  nations 


§  27]  HISTORY  OF  COMPANY  OF  STATES     123 

of  Europe  must  lay  themselves  out  to  subdue  them 
directly  or  indirectly.  We  see  the  great  process  of 
expansive  civilization  continuing  with  the  irresistible 
force  of  a  power  of  Nature.  Here  there  is  no  equili- 
brium, even  in  the  slightest  degree.  He  is  a  fool  who 
would  believe  that  this  process  of  development  could 
ever  come  to  a  standstill;  but  he  who  believes  in 
perpetual  peace  must  assume  this.  Not  even  on  the 
map  can  we  dream  out  a  distribution  of  countries 
which  would  insure  it  And  the  nations  themselves 
are  something  living  and  growing.  No  one  can  say 
with  absolute  certainty  when  the  small  nationalities 
will  decay  internally  and  shrivel  up,  or  when,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  will  exhibit  an  unexpected  vital 
energy.  The  further  course  of  things  will  depend 
upon  this  also,  but  that  it  will  continue  to  be  a  per- 
petual growth  and  transformation,  is  as  clear  as  noon- 
day. And  it  is  just  in  the  changeful  course  of  its  history 
that  the  greatness  of  the  human  race  displays  itself ; 
that  the  finest  fruits  of  human  culture  and  civilization 
ripen. 


§  28.  International  Law  and  Intercourse. 

It  is  the  very  domain  of  war,   however,   in  which, 
at   the  same  time,  the   triumph  of  human  reason  is 


124        INTERNATIONAL  INTERCOURSE      [BK.  v 

most  clearly  exhibited.  All  noble  nations  have  felt 
that  the  let  ting-loose  of  physical  force  in  war  required 
fixed  laws,  and  therefore  an  international  law  of  war, 
based  on  reciprocity,  has  developed.  The  greatest 
triumph  of  the  science  of  international  law  lies  in  the 
field  that  is  considered  by  fools  to  be  purely  and  simply 
a  barbaric  one ;  in  the  law  of  war.  We  seldom  find 
brutal  contraventions  of  this  law  in  modern  times.  It 
is,  on  the  whole,  the  outstanding  beauty  of  international 
law,  that  here,  unmistakably,  a  continual  progress  is 
shown,  and  that,  through  the  universalis  consensus  alone, 
a  series  of  principles  of  international  law  has  developed 
so  firmly,  that  we  can  say  to-day  that  they  stand  as 
securely  as  any  legal  axiom  in  the  private  code  of  any 
State.  It  is  clear  that  international  law  must  limp 
some  paces  behind  national  law,  for  certain  principles 
of  law  and  civilization  must  first  be  perfected  within 
the  States,  before  it  is  resolved  to  recognize  them  in 
international  intercourse  also.  Thus  no  proceedings 
could  be  taken  against  slavery  in  the  way  of  inter- 
national law,  until  the  idea  of  the  dignity  of  man  had 
spread  so  universally  as  it  has  done  in  our  century. 
International  law  has  developed  in  the  course  of 
centuries  to  an  intensity  of  consciousness  of  right, 
which  permits  its  formal  part,  at  least,  to  appear  fully 
assured.  The  publicity  of  political  life  nowadays  con- 
tributes greatly  to  this.  The  times  of  the  English 


§  28]  INTERNATIONAL  LAW  125 

blue-books  are  indeed  past.  These  blue,  yellow,  green- 
books  and  so  on,  are  only  intended  to  strew  incense 
before  the  Philistine,  which  he  cannot  see  through ;  it 
is  not  in  the  least  difficult  for  a  skilled  diplomatist  to 
deceive  Parliament  in  this  way.  But  the  whole  char- 
acter of  the  life  of  the  State  has  become  so  public 
nowadays,  that  a  gross  contravention  of  international 
law  immediately  excites  great  indignation  among  all 
civilized  nations. 


The  right  of  the  State  which  is  waging  war  to  bring 
all  its  troops  into  the  field,  no  matter  whether  they 
are  barbarians  or  civilized  men,  can  be  just  as  little 
disputed.  Here  we  must  remain  unprejudiced  as  re- 
gards ourselves  in  order  to  avoid  prejudices  against  any 
nation.  How  the  Germans  in  the  last  war  accused 
the  French  of  murder  because  they  set  the  Turcos  to 
fight  a  civilized  European  nation  !  Of  course  one  says 
tilings  like  that  in  the  excitement  of  war ;  but  science 
must  remain  calm  and  sober,  and  declare  that  this  was 
in  no  way  contrary  to  international  law.  For  it  re- 
mains the  truth,  that  a  State  which  is  fighting  is 
entitled  and  bound  to  bring  into  the  fight  all  physical 
forces,  all  troops  that  it  possesses.  Where,  then, 
is  the  limit  ?  Where  is  Eussia,  with  her  amiable 
tribes,  to  draw  the  line  in  this  matter  ?  The  physical 


126         INTEENATIONAL  INTEECOUKSE      [BK.  v 

strength  of  a  State  can  and  must  be  fully  employed  in 
war,  but  only  in  the  chivalrous  forms  which  have  been 
established  by  a  long  series  of  experiences  of  war.  Of 
course  the  assertion  of  the  French  that  they  marched 
at  the  head  of  civilization  was  placed  in  a  peculiar 
light  by  their  use  of  such  troops.  A  whole  series  of 
complaints  has  its  sole  origin  in  the  fact  that  demands 
are  made  upon  a  State  which  it  cannot  possibly  fulfil. 
In  the  national  wars  of  to-day  every  brave  subject  is 
a  spy.  Therefore  the  expulsion  of  80,000  Germans 
from  France  in  the  year  1870  was  not,  in  point  of 
fact,  contrary  to  international  law.  Only  the  fact  that 
the  French  acted  with  a  certain  brutality  in  the  matter 
is  not  to  be  approved. 

Of  humanity  in  warfare,  the  well-known  aphorism 
holds  good  in  theory  everywhere,  in  practice,  of 
course,  only  in  land  warfare,  that  it  is  States  and 
not  their  individual  citizens  that  make  war  on  one 
another.  There  must  therefore  be  certain  forms  by 
which  those  persons  can  be  recognized  who  are  en- 
titled to  make  war  in  the  name  of  the  State  and  to  be 
treated  as  soldiers.  There  is  no  general  unanimity 
as  yet  upon  this  point,  and  that  is  a  nasty  gap  in 
international  law.  For  on  the  feeling  of  the  soldier 
that  he  has  only  to  do  with  the  enemy's  soldiers,  and 
does  not  need  to  fear  that  he  will  find  every  peasant, 
with  whom  he  associates  peacefully,  aiming  at  him  from 


§28]  INTERNATIONAL  LAW  127 

behind  a  bush  half  an  hour  later — on  that  feeling  all 
humanity  in  war  rests.  If  the  soldier  does  not  know 
whom  he  has  to  look  upon  as  soldiers  in  the  enemy's 
country,  whom  as  robbers  and  waylayers,  then  he 
must  become  cruel  and  unfeeling.  He  alone  can  be 
looked  upon  as  a  soldier  who  has  sworn  the  oath  of 
fidelity  to  the  colours,  stands  under  the  articles  of 
war,  and  can  be  recognized  by  some  distinguishing 
mark,  which  need  not  be  a  complete  uniform.  Ruthless 
severity  against  the  franc- tireurs  who  swarm  round  the 
enemy  without  standing  under  the  articles  of  war  is  self- 
evident.  It  is  urgently  necessary  that  an  international 
agreement  should  be  come  to  regarding  the  forms  by 
which  it  may  be  lecognized  if  an  armed  man  really  be- 
longs to  a  legitimate  army.  This  question  was  debated  in 
Brussels  in  1 874,  and  the  diversity  of  interests  was  then 
disclosed.  Small  States  like  Switzerland  had  no  great 
desire  to  enter  into  binding  obligations  in  the  matter. 
Every  State  is  still  in  the  mean  time  thrown  back 
upon  its  own  resources,  and  each  settles,  according  to  its 
own  discretion,  which  enemies  it  looks  upon  as  belong- 
ing to  the  army  and  which  as  simple  robbers.  From 
a  moral  point  of  view  we  could  not  but  have  respect 
for  many  franc-tireurs  in  1870-71,  who  tried  in 
despair  to  rescue  their  fatherland ;  but  from  the  point 
of  view  of  international  law  they  were  street-robbers. . . 


128     INTERNATIONAL  INTERCOURSE   [BK.  v,  §  28 

Even  when  the  power  of  the  enemy  is  an  actual,  purely 
military  one,  and  the  point  whether  enemies  belong  to 
the  army  or  not  can  be  clearly  and  definitely  decided, 
private  property  can  be  spared  in  very  large  measure. 
Requisitions  are  permitted  ;  it  is  the  universal  custom 
to  give  bons  for  them ;  it  is,  of  course,  left  to  the  con- 
quered to  get  them  all  paid  later.  War  against 
private  property  as  such,  of  which  Melac's  devastation 
of  the  Palatinate  is  a  terrible  example,  or  the  burning 
of  a  village  out  of  pure  wantonness,  is  considered 
nowadays  by  all  civilized  States  as  an  offence  against 
international  law.  Private  property  may  only  be 
injured  to  such  an  extent  as  is  absolutely  necessary  for 
the  successful  conduct  of  the  war. . 


There  has  further  been  developed  in  international 
law  the  principle  that  those  great  treasures  of  culture 
of  a  State,  which  minister  to  Art  and  Science,  must  be 
looked  upon  as  the  common  property  of  all  mankind, 
and  must  be  secured  from  loot  and  robbery.  Formerly 
this  principle  was  systematically  trodden  underfoot. 

THE    END. 


GLASGOW:  PRINTED  AT  THB  UNIVERSITY  PRESS  BY  ROBERT  MACLEHOSE  AND  co.  LTD. 


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